Venice is gearing up for the 18th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, which runs from May 20 through November 26. Earlier this week AN highlighted the 89 architects, designers, and artists participating in including those exhibiting as Special Projects and Special Participants. In this year’s theme: The Laboratory of the Future, the prompt asks participants to focus on Africa and the African Diaspora.
But the themed exhibition is just one aspect of the event. Almost every participating country has its own pavilion.
This year, notable pavilion curators and contributors abound. APRDELESP, a Mexico City firm known for its annual designs for the city’s contemporary art Material Art Fair, is in charge of Mexico’s pavilion, while Uzbekistan officials tapped Paris and Marrakech, Morocco–based Studio KO for its pavilion. Unbuild Together analyzes the brick remains of the Qalas, ancient fortresses in Karakalpakstan that date back to the 8th century B.C.E. Studio KO will deep dive into the material properties of brick, clay, and earth in partnership with Ajou University in Tashkent. At the Nordic pavilion, architect and artist Joar Nango will show Girjegumpi, a roving library and archive centered on Indigenous architecture. Niger will participate for the first time, and Panama will exhibit its inaugural pavilion forgoing its past participation exhibiting through the Italo-Latin American International Organization.
Last November, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts announced the U.S. Pavilion will be designed by SPACES, a nonprofit arts organization hailing from Cleveland. SPACES detailed that its display will focus on the use of plastics.
To learn more about each of the 63 pavilions and other exhibitions, take a look below at the country-by-country pavilions list.
More information on these pavilions and the Venice Architecture Biennale can be found here. AN will follow up on individual pavilion contents closer to the event’s vernissage.
Albania
Untimely Meditations or: How We learn to live in synthesized realities
Commissioner: Elva Margariti, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Albania
Curators: heramarte (Era Merkuri, Martin Gjoleka)
Argentina
El Futuro del Agua
Commissioner: Paula Vázquez
Curator: Diego Arraigada
Australia
unsettling Queenstown
Commissioner: Janet Holmes à Court AC
Curators: Ali Gumillya Baker, Anthony Coupe, Emily Paech, Julian Worrall, Sarah Rhodes
Austria
Participation / Beteiligung
Commissioner: The Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Ministry for Art, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport of Austria
Curators/Exhibitors: AKT (Fabian Antosch, Gerhard Flora, Max Hebel, Adrian Judt, Julia Klaus, Lena Kohlmayr, Philipp Krummel, Gudrun Landl, Lukas Lederer, Susanne Mariacher, Christian Mörtl, Philipp Oberthaler, Charlie Rauchs, Helene Schauer, Kathrin Schelling, Philipp Stern and Harald Trapp), Hermann Czech
Bahrain
Sweating Assets
Commissioner: Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, Bahrain Authority for Culture & Antiquities
Curators: Maryam Aljomairi, Latifa Alkhayat
Exhibitors: Maryam Aljomairi and Latifa Alkhayat, Waleed Alzubari, Hajar Budhahi, Sara Ali, Nada Almulla, Alanood Alkhayat, Hussain Almosawi, Saleh Jamsheer
Belgium
In Vivo
Commissioner: Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Curators/Exhibitors: Bento et Vinciane Despret
Brazil
Terra [Earth]
Commissioner: José Olympio da Veiga Pereira, president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
Curators: Gabriela de Matos e Paulo Tavares
Bulgaria
Education is the movement from darkness to light
Commissioner: Alexander Staynov
Curator: Boris Tikvarski
Canada
Not for Sale!
Commissioner: Canada Council for the Arts
Curators: Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA)
Chile
Commissioner: Cristobal Molina Baeza
China
Renewal: a symbiotic narrative
Commissioner: China Arts and Entertainment Group Ltd
Curator: Ruan Xing
Croatia
Same as it ever was
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Curators: Mia Roth, Tonči Čerina
Cyprus
From KHIROKITIA to MARS
Commissioner: Petros Dymiotis, Cultural Officer at the Cultural Services of the Deputy Ministry of Culture
Curators/Exhibitors: Petros Lapithis, Lia Lapithi, Nikos Kouroussis, loanna loannou Xiari, Cyprus Space Exploration Organization
Czech Republic
The Office for a Non-Precarious Future
Commissioner: Helena Huber-Doudová
Exhibitors: Eliška Pomyjová, David Neuhäusl, Jan Netušil
Denmark
Coastal Imaginaries
Commissioner: Kent Martinussen, Danish Architecture Centre
Curator: Josephine Michau
Egypt
NiLab – The Nile as Laboratory
Commissioner: Ministero della Cultura Egiziano- Accademia d’Egitto- National Organization for Urban Harmony
Curators/Exhibitors: Ahmed Sami Abd Elrahman, Marina Tornatora, Ottavio Amaro, Ghada Farouk, Moataz Samir
Estonia
Home Stage
Commissioner: Raul Järg
Curators/Exhibitors: Aet Ader, Mari Möldre, Arvi Anderson
Finland (Aalto)
Huussi, Imagining the future history of sanitation
Commissioner: Katarina Siltavuori, Archinfo – Information Centre for Finnish Architecture
Curators: Arja Renell, The Dry Collective
France
Ball Theater / La fête n’est pas finie
Commissioner: Institut français with the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture
Curators: Muoto & Georgi Stanishev
Georgia
January, February, March
Commissioner: Magda Guruli
Curators: Gigi Shukakidze, Tinatin Gurgenidze, Otar Nemsadze
Germany
Open for Maintenance – Wegen Umbau geöffnet
Commissioner: Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building
Curators: ARCH+ / SUMMACUMFEMMER / BÜRO JULIANE GREB (Anne Femmer, Franziska Gödicke, Juliane Greb, Christian Hiller, Petter Krag, Melissa Makele, Anh-Linh Ngo, Florian Summa)
Great Britain
Dancing Before the Moon
Commissioner: Sevra Davis, Director of Architecture Design Fashion at the British Council
Curators: Jayden Ali, Joseph Henry, Meneesha Kellay, Sumitra Upham
Greece
Bodies of water
Commissioner: Efthimios Bakoyannis, Segretario Generale della Pianificazione Territoriale e dell’Ambiente Urbano
Curators: Costis Paniyiris and Andreas Nikolovgenis
Grenada
Walking on Water
Commissioner: Susan Mains
Curator: Luisa Flora
Holy See
Social Friendship: meeting in the garden
Commissioner: Cardinale José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefetto del Dicastero per la Cultura e l’Educazione della Santa Sede Curator: Roberto Cremascoli
Hungary
Reziduum – The Frequency of Architecture
Commissioner: Julia Fabényi, director Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Curator: Mária Kondor-Szilágyi
Ireland
In Search of Hy-Brasil
Commissioner: Culture Ireland
Curators: Peter Cody, Peter Carroll, Elizabeth Hatz, Mary Laheen, Joseph Mackey
Israel
Cloud-to-Ground
Commissioners: Michael Gov, Arad Turgeman
Curator: Oren Eldar, Edith Kofsky, Hadas Maor
Italy
SPAZIALE: Everyone Belongs to Everyone Else
Commissioner: Onofrio Cutaia, Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura
Curators: Fosbury Architecture (F.A.)
Japan
Architecture, a place to be loved — when architecture is seen as a living creature
Commissioner: The Japan Foundation
Curator: Onishi Maki
Korea
2086: Together How?
Commissioner: Arts Council Korea
Curators: Soik Jung, Kyong Park
Kosovo
rks² transcendent locality
Commissioner: Dafina Morina
Exhibitors: Poliksen Qorri-Dragaj, Hamdi Qorri
Kuwait
Rethinking Rethinking Kuwait
Commissioner: Abdulaziz Al-Mazeedi
Curators: Hamad Alkhaleefi, Naser Ashour, Jassim Alshehab, Mohammad Kassem
Latvia
T/C LATVIJA (TCL)
Commissioner: Jānis Dripe (Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia)
Curators: Ernests Cerbulis, Uldis Jaunzems-Pētersons
Lithuania
Children’s Forest Pavilion
Commissioner: Ines Weizman
Curators: Jurga Daubaraitė, Egija Inzule, Jonas Žukauskas
Luxembourg
Down to Earth
Commissioner: Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg and Luca — Luxembourg Center for Architecture, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture
Curators: Francelle Cane, Marija Marić
Mexico
Infraestructura utópica: La cancha de básquetbol campesina / Utopian Infrastructure: The Campesino Basketball Court
Commissioner: Diego E. Sapién Muñoz, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura
Curators/Exhibitors: APRDELESP and Mariana Botey
Montenegro
Mirages of the Future (MNE)
Commissioner: Vladan Stevović
Curator: Zoran Lazovic
The Netherlands
Waterworks
Commissioner: Aric Chen,Het Nieuwe lnstituut
Curator: Jan Jongert / Superuse
Niger
Commissioner: Ibrahim Souleymane
Curator: Boris Brollo
Nordic Countries (Sweden, Norway, and Finland)
Girjegumpi: The Sámi Architecture Library
Commissioners: Kieran Long, ArkDes- The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, Stina Høgkvist, The National Museum of Norway; Carina Jaatinen, The Museum of Finnish Architecture
Curators: Carlos Mínguez Carrasco (ArkDes), James Taylor-Foster (ArkDes)
North Macedonia
Stories of the Summer School of Architecture in the St. Joakim Osogovski Monastery 1992 – 2017
Commissioner: Dita Starova Kjerimi, National Gallery of Macedonia
Curators: Dimitar Krsteski, Aleksandar Petanovski, Darko Draganovski, Marija Petrova, Gordan Petrov
Panama
Panama: Stories from beneath the water
Commissioner: Itzela Quirós
Curator: Aimée Lam Tunon
Peru
Walkers in Amazonia
The Calendar Project
Commissioner: José Orrego
Curators: Alexia León, Lucho Marcial
Philippines
Tripa de Gallina: Guts of Estuary
Commissioner: Victorino Mapa Manalo, Chairman National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)
Curators: Sam Domingo and Ar. Choie Y. Funk
Poland
Datament
Commissioner: Janusz Janowski
Curator: Jacek Sosnowski
Portugal
FERTILE FUTURES
Commissioner: Américo Rodrigues, Direção-Geral das Artes
Curator: Andreia Garcia
Romania
NOW, HERE, THERE
Commissioner: Attila Kim
Curators: Emil lvănescu, Simina Filat
San Marino
OSPITE OSPITANTE
Commissioner: Riccardo Varini
Curators: Michael Kaethler and Marco Pierini
Saudi Arabia
Irth ارث
Commissioner: Architecture and Design Commission, Ministry of Culture
Curators: Basma Bouzo, Noura Bouzo
Serbia
IN REFLECTIONS
6°27’48.81”N 3°14’49.20”E
Commissioner: Slobodan Jović
Singapore
WHEN IS ENOUGH, ENOUGH? The Performance of Measurement
Commissioner: Yap Lay Bee, Group Director (Architecture & Urban Design), Urban Redevelopment Authority; Dawn Lim, Executive Director, DesignSingapore Council
Curators: Melvin Tan, Adrian Lai, Wong Ker How
Slovenia
+/- 1 °C: In Search of Well-Tempered Architecture
Commissioner: Maja Vardjan, Museum of Architecture and Design
Curators: Jure Grohar, Eva Gusel, Maša Mertelj, Anja Vidic, Matic Vrabič
South Africa
The Structure of a People
Commissioner: Ambassador Nosipho Nausca-Jean Jezile
Curators: Sechaba Maape, Emmanuel Nkambule, Stephen Steyn
Spain
FOODSCAPES
Commissioner: MITMA (Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda), AECID (Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation) AC/E (Acción Cultural Española)
Curators: Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa + Manuel Ocaña del Valle
Switzerland
„ Neighbours“
Commissioners: Swiss arts council Pro Helvetia: Sandi Paucic, Rachele Giudici Legittimo
Curators/Exhibitors: Karin Sander, Philip Ursprung
Turkey
Ghost Stories: Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture
Commissioner: Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV)
Curators: Sevince Bayrak, Oral Göktaş
United Arab Emirates
Aridly Abundant
Commissioner: Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation
Curator: Faysal Tabbarah
United States of America
Everlasting Plastics
Commissioner: Tizziana Baldenebro, SPACES
Curators: Tizziana Baldenebro, Lauren Leving
Uruguay
En Ópera
Escenarios futuros de una joven Ley Forestal
Commissioner: Facundo de Almeida
Curators: Mauricio López, Matías Carballal, Andrés Gobba, Sebastián Lambert, Carlos Casacuberta
Uzbekistan
Unbuild Together
Commissioner: Art and Culture Development Foundation
Curators: Studio Ko
Venezuela
Universidad Central de Venezuela, Patrimonio de la Humanidad en recuperación. Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas.
Commissioner/Curator: Paola Claudia Posani