In his treatise, “On The Nature of Things”, Lucretius, the Roman philosopher-poet has said that nature, produces, develops, sustains, and eventually resolves in dissolution. If we accept the first nature of architecture as the tenets of commodity, firmness and delight as specified by Leon Alberti, then the second nature of architecture suggests going beyond those tenets, and beyond the first nature of things.
Re/Mixed attempts to investigate these possibilities when people meet within or without architecture. If the first nature of an architect is to design cities and buildings, then could the second nature of an architect not be a catalyst for the much-needed change in the world today? It is not a farfetched notion to see architects promoting change as NGO leaders, journalists, economists, developers, social activists, and even politicians. Is it not our duty or our re/mixed nature to participate actively on the affairs of the community, the country, and the world? This is where people meet in architecture in the truest sense of the words.
Awaken by such possibilities outside of architecture from the perspective of a young multicultural nation of Malaysia participating for the first time in the Venice Biennale, the resulting Re/Mixed exhibition is a multifaceted mix of contrasts. Physically, there are contrasts of built and unbuilt projects, large and small models, planning and architecture projects, lit and unlit, multi-coloured and monotone, metal and timber etc. The participants range from the young to the old, from architecture students to gold medalist, from small practices to large practices. Conceptually the models oscillate from the real to the surreal. These contrasts comprise of the mundane and the visionary, the practical and the theoretical, the corporate and the social, the philosophical and the political, the sustainable and non-sustainable, the serious and the playful etc. The process of curating this exhibition as well as the exhibits themselves are a true reflection of the state of architecture in Malaysia at the moment.