When MoMA opens the exhibition “Small Scale, Big Change” in October 2010, it is assuming that, after the explosion of the crisis, the current model of star-architects and their icons is no longer marketable. The change he points to is not the result of deep reflection or a cathartic crisis about the unsustainable nor by a cathartic crisis about the unsustainability of this model. of this model , but rather a quick way to assimilate the vicissitudes of a depressed society. of assimilating the vicissitudes of a society in depression. The Golden Lion awarded to the David Tower reclamation project carried out in the Urban Think-Tank at the 2012 Venice Biennale is an affirmation of a new standard of ‘star architecture’.Tank at the 2012 Venice Biennale is the affirmation of a new standard of ‘star architecture’. This controversial recognition only corroborates the shift from an architectural model of glitz and ostentation to a pornographic sacralisation of the poor. of glitter and ostentation to a pornographic sacralisation of the poor.
The Pritzker to Alejandro Aravena and his appointment as director of the current edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale insist on this triumph of the simplistic and opportunistic discourse on precariousness and social concern. Venice Biennale insist on this triumph of simplistic and opportunistic discourse on precariousness and social concern. A discourse far removed from the concrete and verifiable facts. There are those images of the living conditions in the dwellings of the Quinta Monroy in Iquique or the the homes of Quinta Monroy in Iquique or the documentary 74m2, in which ELEMENTAL ‘ s abysmal management throughout the design and construction process of a social housing complex in Valparaíso (Chile). design and construction of a social housing complex in Valparaíso (Chile).
Although at first glance the enthronement of Aravena may seem to be a boost to may appear to be a boost to the prestige of Latin American architecture, in reality it is nothing but a great failure. It is the triumph of the precarious, the homogenisation in negative of a heterogeneous and complex reality that Aravena, like some other architects of the continent, is merely reducing it to the paternalistic gloating of the Eurocentric gaze, so often given to commiseration and the schematization of realities that are alien to it.
The photograph of the presentation panel of this Venice Biennale leaves no room for doubt: the same as always, all men, all white and chaired by Aravena, placed there today only to make it look like something has changed without anything really having changed. Or worse: to make everything even more hypocritical in this mighty festival of vanities.
