Arch+ 2023 – Open for Maintenance – English Edition

Open for Maintenance is not an exhibition. It is an approach to action for a building culture beyond the prevailing exploitation of resources and people. The focus is on used materials from over 40 different national pavilions of the 2022 Art Biennale as well as a broad network of Venetian and German initiatives. By carefully handling what is already materially, socially and urbanly available, the German Pavilion makes visible processes of spatial and social care work that are normally hidden from public view. Open for Maintenance is an installation of the German Pavilion “as found”, i.e. together with the work Relocating a Structure by the artist Maria Eichhorn for the 2022 Art Biennale. In this way, the Art and Architecture Biennale are spatially and programmatically interwoven for the first time. The new structural interventions are oriented towards local needs and include an inclusive ramp, an ecological and non-discriminatory sanitary room, a meeting room, a tea kitchen, a material depot and a workshop. The interventions consist of the collected material from the 2022 Art Biennale and address issues of social and spatial inclusion in addition to the question of resources.