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Lesley Lokko © Photo: Jacopo Salvi. Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
The 18th International Architecture Exhibition, titled The Laboratory of the Future, is curated by Lesley Lokko (Ghana/Scotland), a renowned architectural academic, educator and best-selling novelist. (see biography)
Taking place from 20 May to 26 November 2023 at the Giardini, the Arsenale, and Forte Marghera, it will be 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 decolonisation and decarbonisation.
“What does it mean to be ‘an agent of change’? (…) Over the past nine months, in hundreds of conversations, text messages, Zoom calls and meetings,” stated Lesley Lokko, “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’.”
“(…) For the first time ever, the spotlight has fallen on Africa and the African Diaspora, 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?”
“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.” – (see complete statement)
(From press information, La Biennale di Venezia)
Opening times 2023
Giardini / Arsenale / Forte Marghera:
20 May – 30 September: 11 am - 7 pm
1 October – 26 November: 10 am – 6 pm
Closed on Mondays
Extraordinary openings: Monday 22 May, 14 August, 4 September, 16 October, 30 October, 20 November 2023
Architecture Press Office:
pressoffice@labiennale.org
Tel.: +39 041 5218 - 846 / 849
Photo on top: Serge Attukwei Clottey: Time and Chance
© Photo: Marco Zorzanello. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
Like for all Venice Biennials since 2001, we will publish an extensive Special about the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in 2023. In the meantime, see:
Architecture Biennale Special 2021
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