I Am Where You Are | Cyprus Pavilion | 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture

I Am Where You Are is the project representing Cyprus at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia.

I Am Where You Are is a platform for communication. By highlighting, questioning and then deconstructing sets of binaries, key to cultural perceptions in and about Cyprus, we disengage from convention. Multiplicities, found in-between these binaries, “built_unbuilt, tradition_modernity, Island of Love_place of conflict, immigration_local identity”, are revealed in the pavilion, allowing unexpected experiences to be celebrated.

Architecture is the mediator and the lens used to investigate these often-unnoticed conditions. We focus on the importance of the architectural section. The Pavilion show-cases significant contemporary innovative projects, and incorporates important ancient and vernacular works. We collapse notions of time/space and presence/non-presence, utilizing digital and interactive means. The physicality of the body of the visitor dissolves, as it is enveloped in a wearable apparatus and immersed into a moving-scape of simultaneous projections.
I Am Where You Are, because we are constantly moving and shifting, both physically and digitally. We continuously transform, therefore, ‘I encompass some of what you are and you encompass some of what I am’. The Cyprus Pavilion becomes a transmitter and a receiver: within the exhibit, visitors interact with people in Cyprus and are transported virtually in space and time into the Cypriot context. Different languages, customs, cultures etiquette and built forms we experience on a daily basis mix and merge. They bring into focus that which differentiates, connects and binds us together.