The curators of the 16th Venice Biennale of Architecture, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, chose the motto Freespace. According to the two architects, “freespace” is “a space for opportunity, a democratic space, un-programmed and free for uses not yet conceived.” However, with the ongoing privatization and commercialization of public space, this free space is shrinking more and more. The curators call for the architectural reclaiming of this open space. But without public control over land, there will ultimately be no public realm, no “freespaces.” The question “Who owns the land?” is central to all societies, because space as a resource is just as vital as air and water. And yet the question of land is rarely dealt with explicitly by architects. Based on ARCH+ The Property Issue, Arno Brandlhuber and Anh-Linh Ngo discuss the question of land ownership with Florian Hertweck and Andrea Rumpf, curators of the Luxembourg pavilion entitled “The Architecture of the Common Ground,” Roberta Da Soller and Marco Baravalle, activists from S.a.L.E. Docks, as well as the choreographers Monika Gintersdorfer and Knut Klaßen, who performatively interpret the question of landownership with their piece “Logobi 05,” performed by Richard Siegal and Franck Edmond Yao alias Gadoukou la Star. The event took place in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut and its program series “Performing Architecture.”
