From “NEXT to How Will We Live Together”, the “supermarket” of the Latvian Pavilion sells 506 products, whose names and ingredients recall the projects of the national participations from the last ten Architecture Biennials, an interactive space where visitors are asked to choose what to put in their trolley.
A tray of sautéed mushrooms for LisboScopio (Portuguese Pavilion, 2006), a packet of wet wipes for The Problem of Space Travel (Slovenian Pavilion, 2014), a bottle of beer for Freeingspace (Macedonian Pavilion, 2018)… Latvia celebrates its tenth participation in the Architecture Biennale with the inauguration of a “supermarket of ideas,” a democratic space where products from various origins come together on the same shelves. The project website is also structured like a real e-commerce, complete with a shopping cart and a catalog that can be delivered directly to your home or digitally downloaded.
The names, ingredients, and origin data that distinguish the 506 products draw from the contents of the last ten editions of the Architecture Biennale, from Latvia’s first participation in NEXT (2002) to How Will We Live Together? (2021), in order to highlight the connections between La Biennale (the “supermarket”) and the national pavilions (the “products”). What matters is not the products themselves but the decision-making process.
Choosing between different products involves reflection based on individual and social beliefs, and that’s why what matters is not just the products but the decision-making process itself. The immersive space converges and accommodates all instances, making T/C Latvija (TCL) an innovative laboratory of the future, where it is possible to participate, interact, and take a position on the future of architecture.
