EVERLASTING PLASTICS. UNITED STATES PAVILION AT THE VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE

Curated by Tizziana Baldenebro, SPACES’ Executive Director, and ​​Lauren Leving, Curator ​at the​ Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Everlasting Plastics, the United States Pavilion’s proporal at the Venice Architecture, provides a platform for artists and designers to engage audiences in reframing the overabundance of plastic detritus in our waterways, landfills, and streets as a rich resource. 

Five artists and designers—Xavi Aguirre (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Assistant Professor of Architecture); Simon Anton (Detroit-based designer); Ang Li (Northeastern University School of Architecture Assistant Professor); Norman Teague (University of Illinois at Chicago Assistant Professor in the School of Design); and Lauren Yeager (Cleveland-based sculptor)—will create site-specific works for the pavilion exploring plastic as a single, enduring material with infinite form​s​. In doing so, Everlasting Plastics invites a discussion about the ways that plastics both shape and erode contemporary ecologies, economies, and the built environment, while also suggesting possible alternatives and necessary re-imaginings for the ways in which plastics are deployed. 

“From toys to camping coolers, plastic is deeply embedded in the culture of the United States, where polymers were perfected and exported,” said Leving. “Our toxic chemical relationship with the material is now a global phenomenon, requiring new approaches for addressing a widespread dependency ​​around the world”.