Salon #1 – Reclaiming Modernity, will focus on the ‘Fundamentals’ of architecture in the broadest sense through the local articulations of modernity. In reaction to the Biennale’s theme and title, we bring together leading and emerging voices from around the world to excavate the foundations of the Modern movement from different perspectives, both disciplinary and geographically.

The event aims to recover the vital parts and ideals that lie hidden beneath the rubble of Modernism’s ruins. Modernity is about progress, but inherently carries destruction, including its own. While modernity is ongoing, Modernism was only an optimistic episode of it that ended sour. What can we learn from its downfall? Are some of its ‘Fundamentals’ worth retrieving to counterbalance current hyper-capitalist space making? And how can we apply the remnants of Modernism’s fruitful failures by perceiving them as productive dystopia? Should we reclaim Modernity by reconfiguring some of its destroyed parts?

Salon #1 – Reclaiming Modernity serves as the launch of the first Failed Architecture Biennale, an ongoing exploration into the responsibilities of architecture in the 21st century by learning from past and current experiences and failures. The Salon will be a low-key and open discussion, welcoming everyone to join in. It is organised by the Failed Architecture Foundation in response to the Venice Architecture Biennale and is not part of the main event. 

Iwan Baan (photographer), Ethel Baraona Pohl (dpr-barcelona), Bernard Khoury (Curator of the National Pavilion of Bahrain), Aljoša Dekleva and Tina Gregorič (dekleva gregorič arhitekti), Bart Lootsma (Professor for Architectural Theory at the University in Innsbruck), Tarik Oualoulou (Curator of The National Pavilion of Morocco), Nanne de Ru (co-founder Powerhouse Company and director The Berlage), Azadeh Mashayekhi (Curator of the National Pavilion of Iran), Rory Hyde (Curator of contemporary architecture and urbanism at the V&A), Adina Hempel and Marco Sosa (Curatorial team of the National Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates), John McLaughlin and Gary Boyd (Curators of the National Pavilion of Ireland).*