The Ukrainian pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia presents 'DAKH (ДАХ): Vernacular Hardcore,' exploring how traditional construction methods adapt under wartime crises. Curated by Kosmina, Murawski, and Rusetska, the exhibition juxtaposes heritage vernacular with emergency vernacular, focusing on roofs as primary shelters in both traditional and contemporary contexts. The exhibit, consisting of six elements, advocates for a politics of rebuilding rooted in care, solidarity, and resistance, stemming from the Ukrainian commons. The term 'hardcore' reflects the use of debris to create building foundations, embodying resilience amidst destruction.
We understand 'hardcore' in its original sense as a (vernacular) builder's word, which refers to the assorted bits of debris and clinker that are crunched together to form a building foundation. We appeal for an ethics-and politics-of rebuilding, which is rooted in the fragile, but unyielding, hardcore of the Ukrainian (and planetary) commons; and which makes manifest the structures of care, repair, solidarity-and resistance-that sustain it.
'Dakh' in Ukrainian means 'roof.' The roof is one of the most basic forms of architecture and a primary form of shelter. In the context of war, the roof also becomes the first point of impact for hostile projectiles.
The exhibition, titled 'DAKH (ДАХ): Vernacular Hardcore,' explores the intersection of traditional building methods and improvised construction during wartime crises.
DAKH: Vernacular Hardcore juxtaposes the 'heritage vernacular' of traditional Ukrainian village housing with the 'emergency vernacular' of self-organised reconstruction carried out under wartime conditions.
#ukrainian-architecture #wartime-construction #vernacular-design #biennale-di-venezia #crisis-response
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