Mari Lending and Erik Langdalen, Sverre Fehn, Nordic Pavilion, Venice. Voices from the Archives, Lars Müller Publishers

In 1958 the Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn won the competition for the design of the Nordic Pavilion in Venice, inaugurated in 1962. Drawing back on a rich archive on this masterpiece of post-war architecture, Mari Lending and Erik Langdalen tell a different story about the building than the commonly spread poetic and critical narratives. The book is composed of two parts: part one Historicity of a Concrete Object takes the readers through key moments of the “life of the building”: the cultural or geopolitical momentum, preparing the ground, the competition, the opening, the cooperations, etc. The second part of the book comprises invited contributions by a number of authors such as Adrian Forty, Camille Norment, Helen Dorey, to mention just a few, who reflect on different aspects of the Pavilion.