An Inquiry into the Design and Aesthetics of the Venice Biennale Pavilions

Margreiter's film Pavilion and McQueen's film Giardini exhibited respectively inside the Austrian Pavilion and the British Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale of Art, question the architecture of the pavilion in general in the constructed environment of the Giardini. Is the architecture used as a container of art or the architectural form, the container itself, to be interpreted as art? Their films are about the places in which they are shot and displayed: the pavilions themselves, the containers of art, which are transformed through the films into architectural sculpture/art objects. Arguably, Margreiter's and McQueen's film reveal the extent to which the modern language of architecture of the Venice pavilions, frozen in 'space' (within the boundary of the Giardini) and 'time' (still contemporary from the date of their realization), seem to conjure that particular primordial 'timelessness' which can be valued as one of the main attributes of contemporary architecture in general. These 'kaleidoscopic spaces' which are used to haunt our memory are used to stimulate the ontological role of imagination - creating a new experience of the universe via the pavilion