YOUR RESTROOM IS A BATTLEGROUND

By JSA/MIXdesign, Matilde Cassani, Ignacio G. Galan, Ivan L. Munuera

17th Venice Architecture Biennale, “How Will We Live Together?” on view at the Arsenale May 22 – November 21, 2021.

 

To learn more visit the project website: https://biennalerestrooms.com/Your-Restroom-is-a-Battleground

 

YOUR RESTROOM IS A BATTLEGROUND shows seven dioramas that depict case study bathroom controversies taking place around the world. Viewers are invited to peer into detailed cross-sectional models representing the sites where each battle was waged while they listen to a corresponding four-minute podcast, available for listening here, that describes the social, political and environmental ramifications of each conflict. The sequence of models, arranged in a semi-circular structure, allows visitors to compare and contrast the interconnected political, social, health and environmental issues triggered by bathroom controversies within their broader global context.

The sites featured are:

  • Guangzhou, China: Female activist Li Maizi led the famous “Occupy Men’s Room” movement in which some twenty women took over male public restrooms in Guangzhou and Beijing to fight for “potty parity.”

  • Starbucks, Philadelphia, United States: Contrary to their pledge to make their restroom accessible to all after community protests caused by the arrest of two Black customers, Starbucks installed blue lighting that prevents veins from being visible to discourage intravenous drug use.

  • Residential Housing, Colombia: A disabled individual and his mother protest inaccessible hotel restrooms in a country with a large number of disabled individuals due to its prolonged war.

  • Gloucester High School, Virginia, United States: Transgender high school student Gavin Grimm filed a lawsuit against the school board’s discriminatory transgender policy that forced him to use an isolated restroom in a retrofitted janitor’s closet rather than share the communal facility with his male classmates.

  • Khayelitsha, South Africa: Black residents in Khayelitsha, one of Cape Town’s townships, staged protests after being denied access to waterborne sanitation and flush toilets that are provided in predominantly white neighborhoods, a situation that reinforces the legacy of apartheid and caused a public health crisis exacerbated by droughts.

  • Canterbury Prison, United Kingdom: The installation of footbaths and squat latrines was denounced by different groups who opposed the use of UK government funds to accommodate the religious and cultural practices of Muslim inmates at Canterbury Prison.

  • Port-au-Prince, Haiti: After the devastating earthquake of 2010, poor wastewater management at a United Nations peacekeeping camp spewed raw sewage into local waterways, sparking a cholera outbreak that spotlights Haiti’s sewage system, which defines a geopolitical map with an uneven balance of powers.

 

Project Credits:

Matilde Cassani, Ignacio G. Galán, Iván L. Munuera, Joel Sanders

In collaboration with Seb Choe, Leonardo Gatti, Vanessa Gonzalez, Marco Li, Maria Chiara Pastore

Model Design and Production: Pablo Saiz del Rio

Graphic and Web Design: Paula Vilaplana de Miguel

Multimedia Production: Paula Vilaplana de Miguel and Jorge Lopez Conde

Photography: ImagenSubliminal (Miguel de Guzman + Rocio Romero)

Podcast voices: Maxime Diamond, Paola Pardo Castillo, Jean Im, Matty Cheesbrough, Stuart Sagar, Aimie Hamraie, Gavin Grimm, Jean Evens, Pierre Stanley, Thamara Hela, Barbara Penner, Joshua Block, Masixole Feni, Wang Xiu Ying, Antoine Comets, Malivai Luce

Location: Corderie dell’Arsenale

Sponsors: Elise Jaffe+Jeffrey Brown, Barnard College (Columbia University), Princeton University School of Architecture, Yale University School of Architecture

 

Selected Press

  • ArchDaily, “The Restroom Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale Displays how Restrooms are Political Battlegrounds”

  • Architects Journal UK, “Venice Architecture Biennale 2021: more framework than built work”

  • Architizer, “Architizer’s Selection: 5 Noteworthy Exhibits at the 2021 Biennale”

  • Domus, “Restroom battleground: politics happens in the toilet”

  • PIN-UP Magazine, “IN SEARCH OF A NEW SPATIAL CONTRACT AT THE 2021 VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE”

  • Wallpaper, “Venice Architecture Biennale 2021: a year late but somehow right on time”