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One of the most important architectural events in the world the Venice Biennale 18th International Architecture Exhibition opened its doors on 20 of May. This year, the Pavilion of Turkey at the Venice Architecture Biennale is hosting the project which titled “Ghost Stories: The Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture” by Sevince Bayrak and Oral Göktaş.
Instead of demolishing abandoned buildings or leaving them to their fate, “Ghost Stories: Architecture’s Carrier Bag Theory” focuses on transforming the existing, suggesting to listen and understand their stories. In the Pavilion of Turkey, rooted changes in the world of architecture reach on how we can transform with the help of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and robots are exhibited and made hopeful suggestions. Organized under the coordination of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), the Turkish Pavilion was led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Turkish Republic, contributions to the Culture and Tourism Ministry of the Turkish Republic and co-sponsored by Shüco Turkey and VitrA.
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The official opening of the Turkish Pavilion at the biennial, which will remain open until November 26, was held on Thursday, May 18, with the participation of curators Sevince Bayrak and Oral Göktaş. At the opening, T.C. Rome Ambassador Ömer Gücük, T.R. Vatican Ambassador Ufuk Ulutaş, TC Milan Consul General Mehmet Özöktem, Rome Culture and Publicity Counselor Haluk Söner, Milan Commercial Attaché Ahmet Erkan Çetinkayış and Venice Honorary Consul General Filippo Olivetti as well as many important names from Turkey and the international world of architecture, art and academia were took place.
The project “Ghost Stories: The Sack Theory of Architecture” takes its inspiration from Elizabeth Fisher’s “The Sack Theory of Evolution” and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Sack Theory of Fiction” texts, which adapted this theory to literature. Fisher claims that the first cultural tool belonging to humans may have been a sack of vegetables instead of edged and sharp hunting tools, contrary to popular belief. By adopting Fisher’s idea of fiction, Le Guin manages to tell gripping stories where ordinary non-hero characters live their lives with all their ups and downs.
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“Ghost Stories: The Sack Theory of Architecture” which was realized in a very critical period for Turkey, traces Le Guin’s fiction in architecture and proposes to listen to the stories of abandoned buildings instead of the success stories of heroic buildings. The exhibition design consists of two main parts: Cloud and Workbench. The Cloud contains a selection of Ghost Stories of unused skyscrapers, hotels, schools, hospitals, restaurants and social facilities, collected through an open call in December 2022. The Workbench consists of fifteen tables that reference the fifteen articles of a “Manifesto for the Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture” prepared by curators.
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For more information: www.iksv.org
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