14th of September to the 23rd November 2008, Venice Italy, Giardini della Biennale
in cooperation with Boeri Studio, Milano, Italy

From the 14th of September to the 23rd November 2008, on occasion of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale, Boeri Studio will present Sostenibile distopie, an installation promoted by ABITARE that has its origins within the debates and new perspectives around the rela- tionship between nature and the city.

Sostenibile distopie is an on-going research project that focuses on the different positions and forms of understanding that surround the concept of sustainability. In today’s enormous cosmopolitan metropolises, which sprawl across a territory rich in cultural and anthro- pological variety, the presence of nature is being rethought and redesigned around three radical scenarios. These visions –both fragile and not without inherent problems – are capable of creating improvements in the daily lives of millions of citizens, but also of leading to disastrous or worrying outcomes. This crossroads depends on a few variables that can neither be controlled nor predicted. In these three future scenarios, the boundary between utopia and dystopia has become a very fine one.

As a way of illustrating the thin line that runs between urban utopias and dystopias, the film ‘flocking’ (by Ulrike Barwanietz, Masha Busic, Irene Giardina, Herwig Hoffmann, Johanna Hoth, Giuseppe Ielasi, Samuel Korn, Armin Linke, Renato Rinaldi, Mark Teuscher) will be projected on the wall at the centre of the installation. The film shows the way in which flocks of birds invade Roman skies and the tactics used to shift them away. (Text: Boeri Studio, Milano, Italy)