64 National Participants Join The 18th International Architecture Exhibition in La Biennale di Venezia

The 18th Edition of the International Architecture Exhibition organized by La Biennale di Venezia opened last weekend, May 20, 2023, entitled: The Laboratory of the Future at the Giardini and the Arsenale, and at Forte Marghera. This year, the exhibition is curated by Lesley Lokko and will run until November 26, 2023. 

Despite the rainy day in Venice, Italy, people from all over the world came to visit the 64 National Pavilions that participated in the most-awaited event in architecture during the public opening day. These pavilions are located at the Giardini (27), the Arsenale (23), and in the city center of Venice (14). 

For the first time, Niger participated in the Biennale Architettura this year. Panama, meanwhile, is participating for the first time with its own pavilion. Its previous participation was being a part of IILA (Italo-Latin American International Organization). The Holy See returned to the Biennale Architettura, participating with its own Pavilion on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The first time it participated in the Biennale Architettura was in 2018.

La Biennale di Venezia is a platform committed to fight climate change by promoting a more sustainable model for the design, installation, and operation of all its events. The organization obtained this certification for all of its events held in 2022 by carefully collecting the data on the causes of CO2 emissions generated by the events themselves, and on the adoption of consequent measures. RINA has certified the entire process for achieving carbon neutrality which was conducted in compliance with the international standard PAS2060.

Bahrain Pavilion: Sweating Assets
Curators: Maryam Aljomairi, Latifa Alkhayat; Exhibitors: Maryam Aljomairi, Latifa Alkhayat, Dr. Waleed Alzubari, Dr. Reem Al Maella, Alanood Alkhayat, Alya Ali, Chenyue xdd Dai, Hajar Budhahi, Hussain Almosawi, Hsin-Ying Huang, Yi-Liang Ko, Khushi Nansi, Marwa Al Koheji, Maryam Al Noami, Melad Alfulaij, Nada Almulla, Nasser Al Zayani,Natalie Pearl, Nujud Alhussain Rabeeya Abduljabbar Saleh ,Jamsheer Sara, Ali Sasha McKinlay, Shan-Chun WenVijay Rajkumar Zicheng Xu

For La Biennale 2023, the organizer aims to engage again in a communication campaign to raise the awareness of the participating public. The 18th edition of the international exhibition is the first major exhibition in this discipline to test in the field the process to achieve carbon neutrality, while furthermore reflecting upon the themes of decolonization and decarbonization.

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The Laboratory of the Future

This year’s theme is “The Laboratory of the Future” which challenged curators and architects to tell a story and create a solution for existing problems to achieve a healthier and brighter future. The event shows how architects can be an agent of change through impactful designs. 

Belgian Pavilion: In Vivo
Curators/Exhibitors: Bento et Vinciane Despret

“What does it mean to be ‘an agent of change’?” Lokko asked. “Over the past nine months, in hundreds of conversations, text messages, Zoom calls and meetings, the question of whether exhibitions of this scale — both in terms of carbon and cost — are justified, has surfaced time and again. In May last year, I referred to the exhibition several times as ‘a story’, a narrative unfolding in space. Today, my understanding has changed. An architecture exhibition is both a moment and a process. It borrows its structure and format from art exhibitions, but it differs from art in critical ways which often go unnoticed. Aside from the desire to tell a story, questions of production, resources and representation are central to the way an architecture exhibition comes into the world, yet are rarely acknowledged or discussed. From the outset, it was clear that the essential gesture of The Laboratory of the Future would be ‘change’,” the curator explained.

Pavilion of Saudi Arabia: Irth ارث
Curators: Basma Bouzo, Noura Bouzo, Exhibitor: Albara Osama Saimaldahar

This year, Africa and the African Diaspora have taken the spotlight. “That fluid and enmeshed culture of people of African descent that now straddles the globe. What do we wish to say? How will what we say change anything? And, perhaps most importantly of all, how will what we say interact with and infuse what ‘others’ say, so that the exhibition is not a single story, but multiple stories that reflect the vexing, gorgeous kaleidoscope of ideas, contexts, aspirations, and meanings that is every voice responding to the issues of its time?” said Lokko.

Singapore Pavilion: WHEN IS ENOUGH, ENOUGH? The Performance of Measurement
Curators: Melvin Tan, Adrian Lai, Wong Ker How; Exhibitors: Aurelia Chan, Elwin Chan, Zachary Chan, Kar-men Cheng Chew Yunqing, Lip Chiong, Aaron Choo, Calvin Chua, Joshua Adam Comaroff, Yann Follain, Srilalitha Gopalakrishnan, Richard Hassell, Hwang Yun-Hye, Anuj Jain,Emi Kiyota, Pennie Kwan, Bjorn Low, Jerome Ng Xin Hao, Isabella Ong, Ong Ker-Shing, Firdaus Sani, Thomas Schroepfer, Annabelle Tan, Wong Chun Sing, Mun Summ Wong

“It is often said that culture is the sum total of the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves. Whilst it is true, what is missing in the statement is any acknowledgement of who the ‘we’ in question is. In architecture particularly, the dominant voice has historically been a singular, exclusive voice, whose reach and power ignores huge swathes of humanity — financially, creatively, conceptually — as though we have been listening and speaking in one tongue only. The ‘story’ of architecture is therefore incomplete. Not wrong, but incomplete. It is in this context particularly that exhibitions matter”.

The curator explained that The Laboratory of the Future is an exhibition in six parts. This includes 89 participants which more than half of whom are from Africa or the African Diaspora. She emphasized that nearly half of participants are from sole or individual practices of five people or less for the first time ever. 

Slovenia Pavilion: +/- 1 °C: In Search of Well-Tempered Architecture
Curators: Jure Grohar, Eva Gusel, Maša Mertelj, Anja Vidic,Matic Vrabič; Exhibitors: Anna Bach, Eugeni Bach (A&EB architects), Marcello Galiotto, Alessandra Rampazzo (AMAA), Urban Petranovič, Davor Počivašek (Arhitekti Počivašek Petranovič), Niklas Fanelsa (Atelier Fanelsa), Alicja Bielawska, Simone De Iacobis, Aleksandra Kędziorek, Małgorzata Kuciewicz; Laura Bonell, Daniel López-Dòriga (Bonell+Dòriga), Radim Louda, Paul Mouchet (CENTRAL offau), Velika Ivkovska, KOSMOS, Aidas Krutejavq (KSFA Krutejavas Studio For Architecture), Laura Linsi, Roland Reemaa (LLRRLLRR), Benjamin Lafore, Sébastien Martinez-Barat (MBL architectes), Ana Victoria Munteanu, Daniel Tudor Munteanu, Daniel Norell, Einar Rodhe (Norell Rodhe); Søren Pihlmann (Pihlmann architects); Ambra Fabi, Giovanni Piovene (Piovenefabi), Matteo Ghidoni (Salottobuono), Gordon Selbach, Pablo Canga, Anna Herreros (SOLAR), Elena Schütz, Julian Schubert and Leonard Streich (Something Fantastic), Jakob Sellaoui (Studio Jakob Sellaoui), Hana Mohar, Frane Stančić (Studio Ploca), Susanne Brorson (Studio Susanne Brorson), Benjamin Gallegos Gabilondo, Marco Provinciali (Supervoid), Ana Kreč (Svet vmes), Janja Šušnjar, Mireia Luzárraga, Alejandro Muiño (TAKK), Léone Drapeaud, Manuel León Fanjul, Johnny Leya (Traumnovelle), Gaetan Brunet, Chloé Valadié (UR), Javier Garcia-Germán (TAAs)

Moreover, Roberto Cicutto, President of La Biennale di Venezia shared: “When in December 2021, at my recommendation, the Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia approved the appointment of Lesley Lokko as the curator of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, the main reason for this choice was to give the floor to a voice that came from outside the north-western world, and above all to a person who approached architecture in way that was more aligned with our times and in progression with respect to the perspective brought by Hashim Sarkis to his 17th Exhibition “How will we live together?”

Dutch Pavilion: Plumbing the System
Curator: Jan Jongert / Superuse; Exhibitors: Carlijn Kingma in collaboration with Thomas Bollen, Martijn Jeroen van der Linden, an Jongert, Frank Feder, Valentina Cella, Junyuann Chen, Césare Peeren/(Superuse), Marit Janse (De Urbanisten) in collaboration with Friso Klapwijk (Wavin) and Afrikaander Wijkcooperatie Rotterdam

“We finally seated at the main table,” Cicutto remembered Lokko’s reaction when she heard the decisions of the International Jury of the Art Exhibition curated by Cecilia Alemani. “Cecilia’s Exhibition had in fact validated lesser-heard voices by inviting them to participate in her Biennale. Now Lesley is the one doing the honors, and inviting the world to her Biennale Architettura. The preparation of this Exhibition has already been a laboratory of the future,” the president added.

Pavilion of the Republic of Kosovo: rks² transcendent locality
Exhibitors: Poliksen Qorri-Dragaj, Hamdi Qorri

Lastly, the International Jury of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition 2023 is made up of the Italian architect and curator Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli (president); the Palestinian architect and curator, Nora Akawi; the American director and curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, Thelma Golden; the Zimbabwean founder and co-editor of Cityscapes Magazine, Tau Tavengwa; the Polish architect, researcher and educator Izabela Wieczorek.

The International Jury will award the following official prizes: Golden Lion for best National Participation, Golden Lion for best participant and Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the International Exhibition The Laboratory of the Future.

The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to Demas Nwoko, Nigerian born artist, designer and architect, during the Biennale Architettura 2023 awards and inauguration ceremony at Ca’ Giustinian, the headquarters of La Biennale di Venezia.

Photos from the Author