SZACKA - Exhibiting The Postmodern 2016 pp.180-207
SZACKA - Exhibiting The Postmodern 2016 pp.180-207
SZACKA - Exhibiting The Postmodern 2016 pp.180-207
Met in Venice
185
Ill. The Beginning ofthe End and the End ofthe Beginning
I am trying to have an intelligent thought'.59 For Stern, who firm Exhibition catalogue cover, La presenza
ly insisted on referring to Eliot's text,6° 'The Presence of the Past' def passato. Prima mostra internaziona/e
described the conditions of architecture at the turn of the 1980s di architettura (Milan: Electa/Venice:
Edizioni La Biennale di Venezia, 1980)
much more accurately than 'The Future of the Past'.61 Ultimately,
the idea Stern and the other organisers wished to convey with Exhibition catalogue cover, La presenza
their title was that the past should be altered by the present as def passato. Prima mostra intemazionale
much as the present is by the past. di architettura (Venice: Edizioni La Biennale
di Venezia, 1980)
After numerous discussions and changes, the term 'postmod
ernism' was definitely excluded from the exhibition title. In the Exhibition catalogue cover, The Presence
exhibition catalogue, Portoghesi wrote: 'In choosing a title differ of the Past: First International Exhibition
of Architecture-Venice Biennale 80
ent from Postmodern, this exhibition proposes a clarification.' (London: Academy Editions, 1980)
He argued that 'in choosing a sphere both vaster and at the same
time more restricted within a great area of phenomena still only Exhibition catalogue cover, Architecture
1980: The Presence of the Past Venice
temporarily classified, it intends to point to the changes of the Biennale (New York: Rizzoli International,
specific disciplining of linguistic exigencies rather than to the 1980)
psychological attitude with which the forms, whatever they are,
are used'.62 Yet rather than clarifying what Postmodernism was Exhibition catalogue cover, La Presence
de l'Histoire. L'Apres modernism, Festival
really about-pluralism, communication, disengagement and de a
d'Automne Paris. La Biennale di Venezia
polarisation, and so on - the chosen title bent the message of the (Paris: L'Equerre, 1981)
193
Ill. The Beginning of the End and the End of the Beg·1nn1