Status Flag

Role: Design
Context: To celebrate the renewed pavilion, the design collective Electric Red has reflected on the notion of collective belonging by developing an interactive flag installed in the renovated space. The flag functions both as a spatial expedient to highlight the architectural renovation and as a symbol for the institutional renewal, interpreted as a multifaceted and ever-changing character with a physical, digital and social body. Titled СТАТУС, ‘status’ in Russian, the work of Electric Red ties together issues of personal and collective representation, bringing into question notions of identity in the age of remote connections and social media. The flag will grow incrementally throughout the course of the 2021 Architecture Biennale, based on users’ interactions.

Status is a flag that represents us all. Everybody can influence its final appearance. We have created a website where you can pick a color and add it to the flag. Throughout the day, the colors line up one after another. Like any action in the world, the change of colors does not happen in a vacuum. A gradient appears on the website between every two colors. We really like this mechanism of collaboration and mutual influence—the bigger the gap between the two voices, the longer the color gradient. And every day begins from a new line. Thus emerges a large multicolored fabric, which will be printed anew at the end of the Biennale and displayed in the pavilion.