MONTEVIDEO: A CITY FOR A THEATER, A THEATER FOR A CITY

9- Massimiliano Fuksas: “I will use the Biennale as a laboratory to analyze the new planetary dimension of urban behavior and transformation” See more on the Official Website of the Venice Biennale, Story, “Less aesthetic, more ethical”: https://www .labiennale.org/it/ storiadella-biennale-architettura#accordion-9-collapse

10- La Red 21 press release. See more: https://www.lr21.com.uy/cultura/13618-uruguayen-la-bienal-de-arquitectura-de-venecia

11- “(...) the aim was to attract people interested in financing the Solís works (...),” Quote from the newspaper El Pais published on October 4, 2000, in Miguel Fascioli, 2012, Initiation research project: The national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, p. 21

12- At the discussion panel on “The Venice Pavilion” moderated by Magalí Pastorino. In the said meeting, the invitation to the curators of the first shipment had not been considered, which will end controversies around the academic body’s assessment of said proposal. In any case, Carlos Pascual was present and expressed his opinion and discontent on the subject. See R15 Magazine, Article by Magalí Pastorino Rodríguez, “A look at the Uruguayan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale,” page 132.

Uruguay did not participate in the 2002 Biennial due to the economic crisis, nor the 2004 edition because the pavilion was ceded to Argentina’s use, which suppressed the possibility of beginning to exercise curatorial practice in those years.13

Just in 2006, the Ministry of External Relations invited the School of Architecture to participate in the tenth International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Directed by the British architect Richard Burdett and titled “Città. Architettura e società” this edition had the mission of addressing the so-called “global cities,” those with a population —of more than three or four million inhabitants— in continuous increase, problems of migration and mobility, and in search of development sustainable.”14 Uruguay faced the difficulty of a theme that exceeded its urban conditions, being that the total of the country’s population is equivalent to that suggested by the general curator in a single city.

For this instance, the council university approves the actions of Dean Salvador Schelotto. It directly selects the Academic Assistant Cristina Bausero as curator of the second shipment from Uruguay to the Venice Gardens. Called “Montevideo Seminars,

Spaces For Collective Reflection And Proposals

On Urban Themes,” the Uruguayan submission focused on showing the production generated within the framework of the Montevideo Seminars.15 The proposal needed more local production content because the Montevideo seminar was an academic activity carried out within the university by foreign guests.16

Since 2006, Uruguay has participated without interruption in the Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Ministry of Education and Culture has delegated the responsibility of managing submissions to the School of Architecture. However, there is constant uncertainty because each edition requires prior approval by the ministries involved to make the call. Usually, this aspect leads to the contest being made later than in other countries, many times happening 3 or 4 months before the Biennial opening.

Curator: Cristina Bausero