Guidebook for ‘The Presence of the Past’

This small guidebook produced on the occasion of the First International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, entitled The Presence of the Past, covers the seven main sections of the exhibition. These included the entrance gate designed by Aldo Rossi and his floating Teatro del Mondo (Theatre of the World), an exhibition by three architects Ignazio Gardella, Mario Ridolfi and the American architect Philipp Johnson, considered by Paolo Portoghesi, curator of this edition of the Biennale, to be precursors to Post-Modernism, and the Strada Novissima that showcased façades by 20 different architects and practices from eight different countries. On the mezzanine level of the Corderie the exhibition continued with individual ‘self-portraits’ of a group of 55 younger architects, whose practices were related to Post-Modernism. At the other end of the Strada Novissima was the Critics’ Corner, an exhibition by the three members of the critics committee invited by Portoghesi – Charles Jencks, Christian Norberg-Schulz and Vincent Scully. On the ground floor of the Corderie was a small exhibit L’Ogetto Banale (The Banal Object), curated by Alessandro Mendini and Studio Alchymia, and a display ‘Natura-storia’ (Nature-history).