The Right to Space
at the Venice Biennale
(2016)
As one of the two main spaces in the Biennale Architettura 2016 pavilion entitled “The Right to Space”, visitors encounter a video installation about Professor Jan Gehl. Gehl’s 50 years’ work as a critic and advocate for respecting the human being in architecture, forms the basis for a discussion about the right to urban space. Jan Gehl has helped to put humanism on the agenda, not only in Denmark, but also in projects such as Times Square in New York, Market Street in San Francisco and urban development projects in the likes of Mexico City and São Paulo.
Danish Architecture Center commissioned Dark Matters to design and produce the video installation together with director Andreas Koefoed. With an aim to create a spatial visual experience and an atypical design for an architectural video, thevisual concept was formed by the 3 walls of the installation room and grew into a combination of PiP (picture in picture) and spacial depth through layering. As the main base of the film Jan Gehl is talking about the five themes for the Danish Pavilion through a filmed interview. He is multiplied, changed in size and positioned in different places corresponding to the filmed content and graphic layout in the installation. The result is a modern, dynamic and spatial experience of 'The Right to Space' themes.
Credits
Directors: Andreas Koefoed & Dark Matters
Script: Andreas Koefoed
Art Direction: Dark Matters
3D & Animation:Dark Matters
Starring: Jan Gehl
Sound Design: Morten Groth Brandt
Photographers: Niels Thastum & Andreas Koefoed
Researcher: Sofie Stilling
Grading: KG FILM
Music: Jakob Bro & Tobias Wilner
Tobias Wilner "Emeralds"
Original appears on Findlay Brown "Slow
Light" (DPC Records) 2015
All copyright Dead People's Choice. All other tracks composed and performed by Jakob Bro
With contributions from implosion of Pruitt–Igoe was performed by Controlled Demolition, Inc. – Phoenix, Maryland.
Photographers of Jane Jacobs stills: Fred W. McDarrah and Frank Lennon, Wonderful Copenhagen, Vaka, Morris Terndrup Koefoed, Albert Weber Koefoed, Familien
The Ministry of Culture Denmark has appointed the Danish Architecture Centre as commissioner of the official Danish contribution to the 15th International Architecture Biennale in Venice. The project is sponsored by Realdania, the Ministry of Culture Denmark and the Danish Arts Foundation's Committee for Architecture Grants and Project Funding.