Jonathan Solomon

There are exactly seven "dimensions of citizenship" in the US Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale: citizen, civitas, region, nation, globe, network, and cosmos, from smallest to largest. The U-shaped pavilion in the Giardini moves in the same order, from wearable "citizen" art in the courtyard to civic and regional building materials in the first gallery to a range of multimedia displays for the large-scale dimensions in the remaining four galleries. It is an exhibition that begs for a printed companion to parse a highly ambitious and complex take on an important and increasingly indeterminate term: citizenship. The pocket-sized book delves into the seven dimensions with descriptions of each contribution to the exhibition and long, fairly academic essays that don't necessarily align with the contributions but nevertheless tackle the appropriate dimension and how it relates to citizenship. The essays were co-commissioned by e-flux architecture, and are therefore available online, but their digital forms are hardly a substitute for this handsome, portable book.… (mehr)