HEATWAVE

This multi-part catalogue for the Kingdom of Bahrain’s pavilion at the 2025 Venice Biennale of Architecture is a brilliantly constructed, dialectical object whose form and materials embody its own impermanence. It takes the form of six booklets on two different types of paper that are nested together. These can be read as continuing chapters of the same book – with English from left to right, and Arabic from right to left – or can easily slip apart. The choice of materials includes a red card cover lacking UV-protection varnish so that it will rapidly fade, while one of the two types of paper yellows quickly due to its high wood pulp content. Aesthetically, the colour alterations are inspired by a photo essay featuring some heavily overexposed images, and the deliberately staged impermanence echoes the exhibition’s theme of anthropogenic climate change. Seven short scholarly texts, three visual essays and two image sections presenting the pavilion convey complexity and a highly intellectual approach, but the object itself also has a strong emotional impact. With the relatively small format, lack of a spine and sparing use of colour, the publication downplays its status as a catalogue; and yet it has its own unique beauty. Perfection and imperfection are for a fleeting moment in harmony.

Editor
Andrea Faraguna, Berlin (DE)

Authors
Various

Design
Samuel Bänziger, Rosario Florio, Larissa Kasper, St. Gallen (CH)

Printing
DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg, Altenburg (DE)

Publisher
The National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Venice Biennale, Venezia (IT)

ISBN
-