Invent the Future with Elements of the Past

Swiss sociologist and pioneering urban planner Lucius Burckhardt (1925–2003) developed the concept of “strollology,” or the science of the walk. The only way to truly experience an environment is to move within it on foot. As an approach to urban planning, the stroll redefines the relationship between planned urban development and patterns of movement through time and space.

Invent the Future with Elements of the Past looks at a recent artistic interpretation of Burckhardt’s theories: the contribution of twelve contemporary artists to the Swiss Pavilion at the fourteenth International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2014. Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, the project offers new narratives about the urban space. The resulting objects and events are reproduced here with more than one hundred illustrations and interviews with the participating artists.