Sketching an idea

BorderLINE Architecture’s project wins competition for the 12th Venice Biennale’s Hungarian Pavilion ‘Giardini.’ On behalf of the Hungarian Ministry of National Resources, Márton Kálnoki-Gyöngyössy delivered Commissioner Zsolt Petrànyi’s speech at the opening ceremony.

“One of the world’s most prominent showcases for contemporary arts, the Venice Biennale has hosted the Hungarian Pavilion for over a century now, giving Hungarian artists and architects an opportunity to make their voices heard, and also allowing Hungary to gain recognition,” Márton Kálnoki-Gyöngyössy said at the opening ceremony.

“For an architect, drawing is like breathing,” architects claim. And so, this year’s exhibition explores the simplest and most fundamental act of the architect: drawing. Rather than focusing on dazzling buildings and designs, Borderline seeks to assess, in an unassuming and simple manner, the most basic of all architectural units: the line. Created by two young Hungarian architects, Andor Wesselényi-Garay and Marcel Ferencz, the exhibition uses simple materials only, such as nearly one hundred kilometers of thread, arranged in groups and clusters, 30,000 pencils and hundreds of drawings. Also, videos of numerous interviews with architects are continuously projected through the installation and onto the walls. On the whole, the exhibition was dreamed to be very interactive, being continuously shaped and moved by the people walking in and through it.

“It might come as a pleasant relief to know that, even in today's digital world, many continue to regard drawing as the Alpha and Omega of architecture,” Kálnoki-Gyöngyössy noted. Borderline’s exhibition is open until Nov 21.