kurt w. forster. curator of the 9th international architecture exhibition in venice, italy, 2004 ..............................................................................................
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9th international architecture exhibition in venice, italy, 2004 curator kurt w. forster is a swiss citizen, and has been living in italy since 2002. as explains director forster: ‘in the corderie (moments of metamorphosis) we want to compare a starting point and an epilogue embracing both past and future in a vision of the time of metamorphosis. in a location that is so strongly directional, the visitor also needs to have the freedom to dwell on the variety and plurality of the proposals. in the italian pavilion (the places of metamorphoses) instead, the focus will be on the main themes and current positions, that is, the places of contemporary change.’ forster says that directing the ninth venice architecture biennale has required ‘divine guidance’. first, the italian government cut the show's budget, which was already ...spaghetti-thin, forcing him to become a ‘beggar on every corner in europe’, he said. then he had to postpone the opening after organizers of the venice international film festival, which attracts large crowds to the city, decided to hold their event a week later than planned, creating a conflict with his own. --- kurt w. forster was born in zurich and studied at universities in switzerland, germany, england and italy, graduated in history of art and architecture, literature and archaeology at the university of zurich. having left immediately for the usa, he taught at the universities of yale, stanford, berkeley, harvard and at the massachusets institute of technology, before taking up the position of director of the getty institution of research in Los Angeles for nine years from 1984 to 1993. as founder of the institute, he was also the director of 130 employees, guiding the forming of a vast library of archives and publications, amongst which the series texts and documents (by this point reaching 19 titles), in addition to the organisation of a large network of collaboration between scientists from all over the world. --- back to the biennale index page --- ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? -------	kurt w. foster © designboom kurt w. foster © designboom