Occupy W.C.

June – November 2014, Venice
Architecture Biennial Fundamentals

Occupy W.C. exhibition – Daniele Corsaro

The Occupy W.C. installation at the 2014 Architecture Biennial began in the toilets before being extended into the virtual space of the Internet. The project featured the voices of eighteen young architects who welcomed our suggestion and accepted the invitation to talk about their work and stories, offering their own take on the theme put forward by Rem Koolhaas: Fundamentals. Voices of professionals whose energy, passion and consistency showed that Italian architecture is alive and kicking today, even outside the mega-projects of star architects.
A counterpoint was provided by contributions from Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi (President of the Italian Association of Architecture and Criticism) and Luciano Pes (philosopher). Simona Campus (art historian and curator) also offered her thoughts on the project.

Occupy W.C. was a way of establishing a lighter, more ironic and non-academic relationship, with images that reflect our time and the physical spaces in which we act out our existence. This intervention was stimulated by the conviction that public toilets are now the freest and most democratic places in which people meet. Placing a creative project inside one allowed new exhibition spaces to be claimed, free from system and market constraints.

For young artists these places can be no less effective opportunities for communication than those offered by official sites of art and culture. It may be easier for them to get themselves noticed in a toilet than in a paying collective.