unfolding pavilion explores 'rituals of solitude' inside a restored sailboat in venice

as part of the 2021 venice architecture biennale, a restored trabaccolo sailboat was host to the third edition of unfolding pavilion, titled ‘rituals of solitude’. moored at punta della dogana, the exhibition opened its doors to the public on may 22, inviting visitors to explore site specific works by 12 contributors, which were created following a one week residency on a private island in the venetian archipelago.

images © laurian ghinițoiu / unfolding pavilion

now managed by a non-profit organization, the trabaccolo once belonged to countess luisa albertina di tesserata, an eccentric art collector. in the 1970s, the countess commissioned the construction, on her small private island in the venetian archipelago, of an almost exact replica of an unrealized project by john hejduk: the house for the inhabitant who refused to participate.

the house was set to be demolished to make way for a glamping facility but the unfolding pavilion curators, daniel tudor munteanu and davide tommaso ferrando, made an agreement with the current owners of the island that the house could be temporarily occupied for artistic purposes. however, there was one condition: no images of the event were to be published before the demolition took place.

in the summer of 2020, 12 architects and scholars were invited to spend one week of residency locked inside the house. one per room and each room equipped with only one piece of furniture, which they couldn’t choose. the outcome was 12 site specific works dealing with issues of privacy, domesticity and isolation. unfortunately, the house was later demolished in december 2020.

in keeping with the theme of being alone, ‘rituals of solitude’ could only be viewed one person at a time. for those who missed the opening on may 22, there’s also an interactive website that documents the 12 works, which you can access here.

project info:

name: unfolding pavilion / rituals of solitude

location: il nuovo trionfo, venice

event: 17th international architecture exhibition – la biennale di venezia

curators: daniel tudor munteanu, davide tommaso ferrando

exibitors: (ab)normal; bart lootsma; james taylor-foster + anton valek; fala atelier; WAI architecture think tank; mariabruna fabrizi & fosco lucarelli (microcities / socks-studio) + giaime meloni; fosbury architecture; shumi bose + space popular; salottobuono; aristide antonas; MAIO; traumnovelle; errantearchitetture; giovanni benedetti

web design and development, sound design: hund (ernesto bellei, federico bergonzini, antonio alessandro di cicco, simone s. melis)

exhibition design and model making: errantearchitetture (sarah becchio & paolo borghino)

illustration: giovanni benedetti, marialuisa montanari

photography and video: laurian ghinițoiu; stefano di corato (atelier XYZ)

graphic design: magda vieriu & octavian hrebenciuc

photogrammetry and digitalization: cenk güzelis; uwe brunner

narrator: alina mihăescu

production: carnets (matteo vianello, davide cecconello, caterina barbon, marco andreatta); marco ballarin; elisabeta rabiniuc mocanu, ana victoria munteanu.

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lynne myers | designboom