ENSAMBLE STUDIO BALANCING ACT

Balancing Act is an installation commissioned by Kazuyo Sejima for the Architecture Bienale 2010. It is a play of balance that synthesizes many of the ideas developed by Ensamble Studio. Two structural lines in the longitudinal space of the Arsenale buildings, which operate as a reagent to modify the original space. The interference caused by generating a diagonal incision, cuts on the bias the previous line marked by the old structure. The harmony between the two structures now contiguous forms a space from the two systems that meet, face and compare each other. This is where gravity, that transmits its load in the building, combines and reacts with the new structure. And the primary space now plays with the actions we have caused. The structural columns supporting the weight of the building provide the "tempo" of the visit. The new forces incorporated into this space play with this rhythm creating a new order, breaking its scale. This architectural structure is the basis for the installation Balancing Act, a composition in which several voices sound at the same time, where the diverse technique is the way of achieving the polyphonic object. Contrapuntal structures, predominantly horizontal, face the harmony of the Arsenale space, affecting its verticality, and the intervals displayed in the space by the sequence of columns receive the insertion of new elements, like notes to a new tonal chord in perfect balance