As an architectural history masters student I was bound to like this pavilion. For its own pavilion, Venice commissioned Mohsen Mostafavi, architect and Dean of Harvard University Graduate School of Design, alongside architectural photographer Helene Binet, to exhibit the work of architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736). Perhaps an unusual choice for a Biennale that often focuses on contemporary architecture, but such has been the common theme (or should I say common ground) with other pavilions with references to John Soane, Palladio and Piranesi to name but a few. The exhibition at the Venice Pavilion focuses on eight important churches designed by Hawksmoor in London: St Luke, Old Street in Finsbury; St George-in-the-east; St John Horseleydown; St Anne in Limehouse; Christ Church in Spitalfields; St Mary Woolnoth in the City; St Alfege in Greenwich; and St George in Bloomsbury. Organised by Louis Vuitton, the exhibition shows Binet’s black and white photographs alongside small, digitally printed models of the churches’ variety of spires.
