Home Stage

The Estonian exhibition explores the contradiction between the living place as a home and as an exchange value. A succession of Estonian performers will dwell a month, individually, in a Venetian rental apartment that becomes both an abode and a stage. Everyday life, lived and performed in a duet with the apartment rolls out in front of, and among, visitors to the Biennale. Come over!

Two-faced domesticity

All around us are embodied the contradictions between homes and real estates, dreams and realities, tenants and owners, residents and visitors. Housing is not just about living: investment and speculation have become the primary purpose of more and more dwellings, as real estate and rental prices continue to grow. City centres are made up of ‘money columns’ where living itself has become redundant. Avoiding depreciation by limiting use leads to homes that have owners but no occupants. Elsewhere, there are residents who struggle to become owners. The sense of stability of the home as an intimate space of one’s own, a place for family history and material biography, is in contrast to the flexible and temporary nature of real estate, of rapid buy-and-sell markets – ‘home’ as disposable lifestyle product.

Home Stage

Home on display is a common sight. Ever looked for somewhere to live? Ever been given a tour of someone’s new place? Prospective homes are staged for us – to invite a feeling of comfort, to please us aesthetically, or even to intimidate. Or are we buying dreams? In someone’s home – a space of intimate relationships – a wider set of market relations is revealed.

Who are you? Are you a home-seeker on a house tour? A guest at a private housewarming party? An architectural explorer? A curious neighbour? An amateur investor?

Hello! Come in, come in!

Sorry, don’t mind the hallway, it’s in a constant state of renovation, but at least that will keep the place looking new! Let me show you the bedroom. Isn’t the water calming! I feel like I have all the time in the world, so relaxing… Look at the view from here! That alone is easily worth a million! Come on, come along! Bathroom! Oh yes, there was one time when all the pipes in the bathroom burst – ah, those were joyful fountains! This has all been fixed, of course – we have high-quality technical systems now! This way, let me open the door for you. Ah, the dust fluff dancing in the sunshine, ha ha – you know, the soul of the house! Let’s head back to the living room, I’m sure you’d like a drink!