From 16th Biennale di Venezia Architettura to The Benaki Museum, supported by Onassis Culture

Drawing inspiration from the renowned fresco “The School of Athens” by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, the exhibition curated by Ryan Neiheiser and Xristina Argyros comprises physical models of seventy different academic spaces in the course of history and from across the world, both realized and unrealized. All models are printed at the same scale – 1:200 – and only represent the University spaces that can be identified as the academic commons, excluding other secluded areas like classrooms and office spaces. These physical models are complemented by data visualizations, drawings, and pictures, which allow a thorough comparison between the exhibited pieces, thus encouraging reflection and experimentation.

Using a system of mirrors reflecting and multiplying the models as its core element, this work literally expands to the outside, beyond the set limits of the exhibition space. Even though this work is neither complete nor absolute, it is an ongoing and evolving research project – an ever expanding spatial atlas of the academic commons.

“The School of Athens, Venice Architecture Biennale 2018”

Duration: 20.02-17.05.2020
Exhibition Opening: 19.02.2020 at the Benaki Museum, 138 Pireos Str.

The project is the outcome of an international student collaboration between the National Technical University of Athens and the British University Architectural Association in London. Adacemic institutions included in the exhibition range from Plato’s Academy in Athens, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts / Le Corbusier in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the courtyards of the University of Cambridge in Great Britain, the Athens Conservatoire, the School of Philosophy in Crete, and the voids of SANAA’s Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.