Diverse Collaborations at the 14th Venice International Architecture Biennale

　　The 14th Venice International Architecture Biennale (hereinafter referred to as the Venice Biennale) will open on June 7, 2014 and run until November 23. Curator Rem Koolhaas has designated the overall theme and the theme of the Central Pavilion as "Fundamentals," with the national pavilions themed "1914-2014: Absorbing Modernity."

　　At that time, the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (Shenzhen) (hereinafter referred to as the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale) will hold a series of "Shenzhen Biennale at the Venice Biennale" events in Venice, collaborating respectively with the China Pavilion and the Finland Pavilion to echo this edition of the Venice Biennale through diverse formats such as exhibitions and forums.

　　The China Pavilion of this edition of the Venice Biennale is curated by scholar Jiang Jun as chief curator, who joins hands with several of the finest contemporary Chinese architecture, design, and research teams to jointly build a China Pavilion themed "Mountains Beyond Mountains." The Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale will work closely with the China Pavilion to hold multiple joint academic activities, including a theme launch event, a 15-day exhibition-within-an-exhibition titled "Collaboration · Coexistence," and an urban development summit forum.

　　The exhibition-within-an-exhibition will continue the presentation format of the China Pavilion, comprehensively reviewing and summarizing the growth of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale over five editions in ten years, from exploration to maturity, offering a retrospective assessment of the exhibition's development history, and displaying representative works through case cards, storybooks, and physical models, with continuous screenings of documentaries and interview videos of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale, thereby discussing the catalytic and driving role of the biennale as a public cultural activity in Shenzhen's urban development and renewal. In addition, the academic forum will discuss the collaboration and coexistence model of urban development, namely how government leadership, enterprise support, expert guidance, public participation, and broad civic engagement drive urban renewal.

　　The Finland Pavilion of this edition of the Venice Biennale is co-curated by Aura Porman, curator and creative director of the 5th Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale, and Juulia Kauste, director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture (MFA). The collaboration between the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale and the Finland Pavilion will take as its starting point the installation "Re-Creation" contributed by the MFA to the Value Factory venue of the 2013 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale, presenting in the Finland Pavilion through a small-scale exhibition the mutually complementary and mutually inspiring relationship between Shenzhen and Finland (Europe) in architectural design culture, and recounting the role of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale as a catalyst for urban development.