Cruising Pavilion was an art and architecture exhibition that explored the places and practices of casual sex. It was an unofficial offering of the 16th Venice Biennale of Architecture and ran from 24 May to 1 July, 2018. Between 22 February and 7 April 2019, the second edition opened at Ludlow 38 in New York City. [1] In late 2019, the final chapter of the project opened at ArkDes, the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, in Stockholm and ran from 20 September to 10 November, 2019. [2]
The exhibit in Venice sought to depict places where gay men historically looked for casual sex and hookups, including "non-conventional venues such as parking lots, parks, bathroom stalls, and dark rooms." [3] The design of the exhibition included glory holes, a semblance of dark rooms, and aspects seeking to demonstrate aspects of hooking-up including narrow stairs and multiple levels. [4] The show presented ways LGBT people "have shaped space and the ways in which architecture has therefore in turn shaped space for them." [5] Cruising as a practice and the spaces in which it happens were explored and made safe in the exhibition, all while challenging the heteronormativity commonly expressed in the Venice Biennale of Architecture itself. This is especially dramatic given the implications of online and dating apps such as Grindr. [6]
The exhibition in New York explored the different directions by which cruising practices have evolved. The exhibition in Stockholm, which took place in a national gallery, explored the intersection of cruising and architectural environments. According to critic Michael Bullock, "in a little less than two years, [Cruising Pavilion] has gone from a renegade operation to an institutionalized project shown in a national museum, though ironically it found its most distinguished venue in a city of 2.4 million people with only one official gay bar." [7]
The Venice Biennale is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of its kind. The main exhibition held in Castello, in the halls of the Arsenale and Biennale Gardens, alternates every second year between art and architecture. The other events hosted by the Foundation - spanning theatre, music, and dance - are held annually in various parts of Venice, whereas the Venice Film Festival takes place at the Lido.
Cruising for sex, or cruising, is walking or driving about a locality, called a cruising ground, in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety. The term is also used when technology is used to find casual sex, such as using an Internet site or a telephone service.
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Venice Biennale of Architecture also known as Mostra di Architettura di Venezia – in its original language, Italian – is an International exhibition held every other year on even years in Venice, Italy, in which architecture from nations around the world is presented. It is the architecture section under the overall Venice Biennale and was officially established in 1980, even though architecture had been a part of the Venice Art Biennale since 1968.
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