“In architecture, 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.” These are the remarks of Lesley Lokko, curator of the Biennale Architettura that opens its doors in Venice on 20 May (until 26 November).
Lesley Lokko – Photo © Jacopo Salvi
An architect, teacher and writer, as well as founder and director of the African Futures Institute in Ghana, Lokko has approached this event in a new way, coming to terms with the theme of decolonization and decarbonization, while putting the spotlight on Africa and its Diaspora.
Biennale Architettura 2023, Venice: Keré Architecture, “Counteract” – Photo © Matteo de Mayda
“The Laboratory of the Future is an exhibition of six parts. It includes 89 participants, over half of whom are from Africa or the African Diaspora. The gender balance is 50/50, and the average age of all participants is 43. […] Over 70% of exhibits are by practices run by an individual or a very small team,” Lokko emphasizes.
Fosbury Architecture – Photo © Giacomo Bianco
“The Laboratory of the Future begins in the Central Pavilion in the Giardini, where 16 practices who represent a distilled force majeure of African and Diasporic architectural production have been gathered. It moves to the Arsenale complex, where participants in the Dangerous Liaisons section – represented also in Forte Marghera in Mestre, rub shoulders with the Curator’s Special Projects, for the first time a category that is as large as the others. Threaded through and amongst the works in both venues are young African and Diasporan practitioners, our Guests from the Future, whose work engages directly with the twin themes of this exhibition, decolonization and decarbonization. We have deliberately chosen to frame participants as ‘practitioners’ and not as ‘architects’ and/or ‘urbanists,’ ‘designers,’ ‘landscape architects,’ ‘engineers’ or ‘academics,’ because it is our contention that the rich, complex conditions of both Africa and a rapidly hybridizing world call for a different and broader understanding of the term ‘architect.’”
Biennale Architettura 2023, Venice – Singapore exhibition
There are 64 nations that organize their exhibitions in the pavilions at the Giardini (27), the Arsenale (22), and the historical center of Venice (14): Niger makes its debut, while Panama takes part for the first time on its own. The Holy See returns with its own pavilion on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore (it took part for the first time in the Architecture Biennale in 2018).
Biennale Architettura 2023, Venice – Pavilion of the Republic of San Marino, drawing by Vittorio Corsini
Biennale Architettura 2023, Venice – Egypt Pavilion, ‘NiLab. Nile as Laboratory’
Visitors should not miss the exhibition Spaziale: Everyone Belongs to Everyone Else at Padiglione Italia, at the Tese delle Vergini in the Arsenal, curated by the group Fosbury Architecture, summing up the processes triggered in nine locations selected from the Italian territory from January to April 2023; the special project in the Pavilion of Applied Arts at the Arsenale, titled Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Power in West Africa, in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum of London; Carnival, a cycle of encounters, round tables, films and performances; and the many collateral events organized by national and international non-profit agencies and institutions in various locations around the city.
