Grove Cradle

Venice Biennale 2021

Venice, Italy - 2021

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Film directed by Warren du Preez & Nick Thornton-Jones in collaboration with Philip Beesley. Music by Salvador Breed

Grove is a delicate and beautiful gathering space that offers a vision for inclusive, open building. A soaring, undulating canopy of luminous, lace-like clouds embedded with liquid-filled glass vessels hovers above a central pool-shaped screen, into which a film, called Grove Cradle, by London-based Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones is projected. The projection pool is surrounded by a forest of totemic, basket-like columns with embedded custom speakers that carry a multi-channel spatial sound environment by composer Salvador Breed and 4DSOUND of Amsterdam.

Together, the film and sound environment offer visitors an almost overwhelmingly intense experience of innumerable worlds falling into chaos and rising again in new life. Inspired by the form language of Beesley’s “living architecture” environments, the film’s intricate geometries move from inert crystalline minerals into surging life forms. Within an astral, dream-like vision of constant metamorphosis, a child-like being emerges, reflecting the fundamental journey from death into new life. Rising and falling in cycles, deeply fragmented wilderness is interwoven with shimmering, hopeful light. Whispering voices emerge from cavernous depths, creating an emotional passage from suffering through new life and innocent wonder.

Grove is open to the public at the Arsenale – one of the main exhibition venues of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia from May 22 to November 21, 2021. VIP and Press Pre-opening dates are from May 20 to 21, 2021.

Grove Cradle has been generously supported by 4DSOUND, Acrylite™, Anonymous, Atelier Iris van Herpen, Boko, Canada Council for the Arts, Christie Digital Systems, Conservatorio di Musica di Vicenza “Arrigo Pedrollo,” DigitalFUTURES, Embassy of Canada to Italy, EnTimeMent, Florida International University, Formlabs, Gaslights Events Company, Gorbet Design Inc., HIP Developments, Horizon 2020 – European Commission, Immortal Productions, Living Architecture Systems Group (LASG), MITACS, Pierre Lassonde Family Foundation, Riverside Architectural Press, Rock Paper Robot, RÖHM Products of America, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Stimuleringsfonds, Tapestry Hall, Toronto Arts Council, TU Delft, University of Waterloo, Voltera, Waterloo Architecture Cambridge, Wicked Pixels

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