BELVEDERE RN-M-G-M/G-Clt UNI EN 13163:2013

Installation, Architecture Venice Biennale 2023

BELVEDERE GD-CLT-N-RN 13163/13501 (2023) is an interdisciplinary project created by (ab)Normal and Captcha with Emilio Vavarella for “Spaziale,” the Italian Pavilion, curated by Fosbury Architecture, at the 18th Venice Biennale of Architecture.

The project begins as an investigation of the ‘operational underbelly’ of the Tuscan landscape. Despite its cultural status as a ‘postcard-like’ territory, Tuscany hosts some of Europe’s largest plant nurseries and a massive industrial production of plants and trees for decorative purposes. It also hosts a blossoming industry specialized in the reproduction of architectural elements using polystyrene and digital fabrication technologies. BELVEDERE explores the Tuscan landscape and its relentless codification of aesthetic forms, linking the serial production of identical genetically modified plants to the creation of polystyrene copies of neoclassical architectural elements used to decorate new buildings.

Practice: (ab)Normal; Captcha Architecture
Advisor: Emilio Vavarella
Incubator: Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci
Photographer: Mattia Balsamini
Technical Sponsors: Municipality of Prato PoliArt
Supporters: Nuova CMS; Vannucci Piante
Acknowledgements: Valerio Barberis, Assessorato all’Urbanistica di Prato, Urban Center Prato, Vannucci Piante (Andrea Massaini, Fiorello Gori, Enzo Gramigni)