the 387 houses of peter fritz at the venice art biennale

 

http://www.designboom.com/art/the-387-houses-of-peter-fritz-at-the-venice-art-biennale/

 

"in 1993, while browsing in a junk shop, artist oliver croy discovered 387 model buildings, each neatly wrapped in its own garbage bag--the architectural creations of austrian insurance clerk peter fritz. there is little known about the life of fritz, he nevertheless left behind a substantial body of work that stands as an intriguing testament to his imagination and passion. 20 years after the discovery of these miniatures, artist oliver croy and architecture critic oliver elser offer a look at these lost constructions in a curated installation entitled 'the 387 houses of peter fritz'. presented at the 2013 venice art biennale (at the italian pavilion inside the giardini venue; part of this year's curatorial exhibition by massimiliano gioni),  the buildings compose a near-encyclopedic inventory of all manner of provincial architectural styles, from farmhouses to bank buildings, churches to traditional single family homes, villas to gas stations. each one has been assembled with care from a combination of easily acquired materials: cardboard, matchboxes, wallpaper scraps, adhesive foil and magazine pages. rather than attempting to conceal these odds and ends, fritz employed them as fanciful ready-made design elements."