Le Pavillon des oiseaux / Biennale de Venise 2021

This Pavilion on the site of the Biennale is a reproduction of the original one that was built at the invitation of the Consortium Land, in Burgundy, France. The original Pavilion stands close to a village called Grancey-Le-Château.

Walking in the alley that leads to this ancient fortified castle town, and before passing its historic gate, one can see a dome in the wood. Originally it was designed for an open-air library with furniture depicting all the fables and fairytales in which birds appear.

These include the tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Jean de La Fontaine : all their books about fables and the supernatural powers assigned to the goose, the swan, the crow, the seagull, and the sea eagle.

Other birds—those there are real, alive—alight on this Pavilion or get inside.
That is why it is called the Bird Pavilion, a place where fiction and reality intertwine.

At first glance, from afar, the site could appear primitive, but a closer inspection shows its construction is deliberate : its elements frame a clear path and its oblong space is perched between the trunks of the forest.
A viewer might hesitate before its basket work or corbelled construction. It is a steel structure composed of successive beds. Though the branches that cover the pavilion have been cut from the trees of the wood at Grancey-le-Château, one wonders whether local children have built it because all these branches are
child-size ?

Or was it woven by the mythical Hercules bird that took the size of a giant at the origin of human society ?

It’s half man/half animal indeed !

So this dome is really a tale—one not illustrated but built. It is what we imagine about its manufacture that tells us it is more than a tale : it is an architectural genre.

Why such a project ?

Tales without sound may have powerful effects ; the tales are told here and there ; they travel at their own pace. They can change form and language but they are significant in making impressions.

Though their aspects seem superficial, they propagate philosophical ideas.

Article connexe :
Le pavillon des oiseaux