While the closer reaches of space are quite populated already, the conditions for human life there remain unsuitable, and without adequate devices and objects even deadly. The material manifestation of human presence in space is architecture at its most fundamental: as an articulation of surroundings and as a functional form of habitation in weightlessness.
The history of appropriating space has always been a history of architecture, too, most prominently in connection with scientific and technological achievements. One of the pioneers of space architecture was the Slovenian engineer HERMAN POTOČNIK NOORDUNG, who in his 1928 book THE PROBLEM OF SPACE TRAVEL offered a series of technological solutions for human survival in orbit. Noordung’s quest echoes that of the modernists and avant-gardists of the early 20th century – the search for a new artistic expression, which coincided with the invention of a new social order and a new man altogether. In this context, space enables a whole new view of art and society.
If at first it seemed as if these artistic breakthroughs and their utopianism were aiming for the future, today – with space exploration in full swing – they can be seen as contemporary. At the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, THE SLOVENIAN PAVILION, curated by the CULTURAL CENTRE OF EUROPEAN SPACE TECHNOLOGIES (KSEVT), looks at past scientific and artistic space research as diverse preliminary efforts of space culturalization. While considering the architectural, artistic and scientific pioneers of space culturalization, the Pavilion defines a course for the next epoch of life outside the Earth – an expansion of life in space to all dimensions that befit a civilization in terms of concept and experience. Architecture for space – SUPRE:HUMAN, SUPRE:LIVING and SUPRE:COMPOSITE – is that very civilization’s first material harbinger.
THE PROBLEM OF SPACE TRAVEL – SUPRE:ARCHITECTURE | 14th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, the Slovenian Pavilion | 7. 6. – 23. 11. 2014 | Created by: Miha Turšič and Dragan Živadinov | Co-creators: Dunja Zupančič, Špela Petrič, Peter Krečič, Tanya N. Zhelnina | Curator: Jurij Krpan | Commissioners: Miha Turšič (KSEVT), Maja Ivanič (DESSA Gallery) | Assistance: Robertina Šebjanič, Jerneja Rebernak | Cooperators:Bevk-Perović architects, Dekleva-Gregorič architects, OFIS architects, Sadar+Vuga architects, Blaž Šek, Gregor Novakovič (3Data) | Exhibition construction: OPL, Altos | Production: KSEVT | Co-production: DESSA Gallery, Ljubljana architects association | Project supported by: Ministry of culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut training centre Zvyozdny gorodok; La Biennale di Venezia | Sponsors: ApluA gallery, Pinacoteca Manfrediana, Municipality of Vitanje, Spirit Slovenia, Lifeclass hotel&resorts Portorož, Casino and Hotels HIT, Zlati grič, Goopti