At La Biennale di Venezia, that six-month-long cultural Olympics, the oddly shaped  Canadian Pavilion has long vexed the many architects and artists commissioned to represent our nation. Designed in 1957 by Enrico Peressutti of the Milan architectural studio BBPR, it is evocative of a nautalus shell or snail, its Fibonaccian proportions largely indifferent to the practical display of architecture and art. Its mass of brick, wood, steel and glass curls around a central support column abutting an outdoor courtyard and pair of trees encased in glass, though many an architect would trade those dramatic features for more specialized curatorial needs, such as an on-site bathroom. On rare occasions, the Pavilion?s unusual volume has been ideal, notably for Philip Beesley?s 2010 Hylozoic Ground, whose acrylic lattice hugged its curving walls like living stalactites. But it hasn?t been so congenial for more straightforward installations, such as SweaterLodge, the 2006 installation by Bill Pechet and Stephanie Robb, in which the team?s gigantic West Coast fleece jacket was scrunched awkwardly within its rigidly proscriptive space, inadvertently strengthening the regional metaphor. The Canadian Pavilion in 2013. Photo via National Gallery of Canada.
Now, after 60 years, the Canadian Pavilion is finally getting its overdue transformation?a renovation and de facto reconstruction, and the promise of an exhibition space equipped to current professional standards. In partnership with Bien...