P—023—BRD
Bardo
Reference
P—023—BRD
Project
Art Installation
Location
British Pavilion - 18th La Biennale di Venezia Architettura 2023
Client
British Council
Consultants
Fabrication — Jamps
Design Team
Madhav Kidao
Status
Completed
Introduction
Bardo is an artwork commissioned by the British Council for the British Pavilion at the 18th Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2023. It is one of five commissioned works featured in the exhibition Dancing Before the Moon, which celebrates diasporic rituals and creative practices and was awarded the Special Mention prize.
In contrast to the monotheistic, and thus Western, understanding of death as an endpoint—where everything has a beginning and an end—Hinduism, Buddhism, and other ancient belief systems view existence as a continuum. In these perspectives, humans are seen as elements within a vast, interconnected system.
This philosophy is embedded in Bardo, which explores death rituals through the themes of inheritance, destruction, and the reincarnation of cultural artefacts. The piece is crafted by melting down and recasting Between Forests and Skies, a low-carbon aluminium pavilion commissioned by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2021. It embodies the concept of punarmṛtyu (Sanskrit for “re-death”) by transforming one form into another through destruction. Bardo serves as a reminder that cultures, spaces, and objects can be circular and infinite, highlighting our connection to everything around us.
The artwork consists of a series of aluminium panels cast iteratively around each other, creating a fluid and integrated patterned surface that reflects ideas of material and structural interdependence. The textures on the surface have been shaped by the sand used in the casting process.
From the Tibetan, Bardo may be translated literally as "the Between," with two primary meanings. The most general meaning is the intermediate state in Tibetan Buddhism, after death but before rebirth. The second, more technical meaning is the set of "six betweens": (1)"(ordinary) life," which is between physical birth and physical death; (2) "dream," which falls between waking and deep sleep; (3) contemplation," which is between regular consciousness and transcendent awareness; (4) "the death point," the hyperconscious period between physical death and existence in an energy body; (5) "reality," which comes between the death point and falling into a new rebirth; and (6) "becoming," which is between the "reality" phase of death and physical conception. Three of these six Bardos are found during physical life; three are found in the afterdeath process.
Photography — Taran Wilkhu, Nebbia