SEEN AT THE VENICE BIENNALE OF ARCHITECTURE # 3
photograph by Manfredi Bellati
JAPANESE PAVILION - VARIOUS ARTISTS
OTAKU
This little child was having fun in the Japanese Pavilion which focuses on the Otaku (persona=space=city), a term coined to signify a new personality that has emerged as a reaction to the loss of "future". This terms evokes a stereotyped image of an unfashionable computer nerd, preoccupied with games and anime even after his adolescence. Okatus were, by nature, once-ambitious boys, who were particularly affected by the loss of faith in science and technology. The exhibition is based on the Otaku personality, including samples of Otaku's private rooms, comic markets, Okatu-based websites, online communities, rental showcases (above)...... These are nothing like the transparent and light constructions that architects have envisioned to be the style of computer-age architecture, but seem more of a parody of a Walt Disney World.