The project is homage to Giovanni Caboto and his son, Sebastiano, the Venetian cosmographers and seafarers who discovered North America. Giovanni and Sebastiano are honored by plaques on the triangular building where Rio Tera Garibaldi begins, a site that lies between Piazza San Marco and the Biennale grounds.
In 1497, John Cabot (his Anglicized name) led an English fleet out of Bristol, under license from King Henry VII of England, "to seek out, discover and find the islands, countries, and regions of the infidels or heathen in whatsoever part of the world." His goal, as in Columbus' voyage five years earlier, was a westward route to the riches of the Orient. The lead ship, the Matthew, was 20 meters long, two-masted and built of oak. On June 24th, 1497, at 5:00 am in the morning, land was sighted (probably Newfoundland or Cape Breton, part of what is now Canada). They landed and erected two banners: One English, one Venetian. Although they saw no inhabitants, they returned to England with a collection of simple maps and tools found on the landing site.
The pavilion project proposed here attempts to form a hybrid of two forms: the first a ship built of wood plank, the second an aboriginal longhouse built of canvas stretched over a bowed stick frame. As the fictional scenario of Cabot's return from Canada to Venice some 500 years later, the project constitutes a crossing of Cabot's European roots with native North American culture. Banners in French and English claim the territory around the pavilion.
(From competitor's text)
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