Today is the official opening of the 19th Venice International Architecture Biennale! The inauguration was accompanied by the awarding of the Golden Lions, the prestigious awards given since 1978. Who won this special award this year?
A&B partners at the Biennale
Golden and Silver Lions
National Pavilions and projects in the exhibition "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective" ("Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.") were judged by a jury chaired by Hans Ulrich Obrist (Swiss curator, critic and historian, artistic director at the Serpentine Gallery in London) and composed of: Paola Antonelli (Italian curator, director of the architecture and design department at the MoMa museum in New York) and Mpho Matsipa, South African architect, lecturer and curator.
Photo: Jacopo Salvi | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
Golden Lion
The main prize, the Golden Lion, was won by the Bahrain Pavilion presented at the Arsenale. The "Heatwave" exhibition was curated by Andrea Faraguna.
Photo credit: Jacopo Salvi | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
The pavilion offers a viable proposition for extreme heat. As the designers explain, "architecture must meet the dual challenges of environmental resilience and sustainability." The ingenious solution can be applied to public spaces and places where people have to live and work outside in extreme heat, the
- announced the jury.
Bahrain Pavilion
Photo: Andrea Avezzù | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
Listen to what Malgorzata Kuciewicz of the Centrala Design Group said about the award-winning exhibition:
The Golden Lion for participation in the main exhibition went to the team consisting of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Natural Systems Utilities, SODAI, Aaron Betsky, Davide Oldani for the project "Canal Café".
"Canal Café"
Photo: Marco Zorzanello | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
Silver Lion
The Silver Lion for Promising Entrants was won by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler for their project "Calculating Empires. A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500."
This large-format visual manifesto shows digital and social infrastructures co-evolving over the centuries. Now more than ever, we understand the entanglements of power and technology - colonialism, militarization, automation and enclosure
- reads the jury opinion.
The exhibition "Calculating Empires. A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500"
photo: Luca Capuano | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
special honorable mentions for national pavilions
A special honorable mention went to the Great Britain Pavilion with its moving exhibition "GBR - Geology Of Britannic Repair." The exhibition was prepared by a British-Kenyan interdisciplinary team of curators: Kabage Karanji and Stella Mutega of the Nairobi-based Cave_bureau studio, British writer Owen Hopkins and Professor Kathryn Yusoff. "The Geology of British Remediation" focuses on the relationship between architecture and geology, looking at architecture connected to the earth and working methods that are resilient to climate collapse, social and political change.
UK Pavilion
Photo: Marco Zorzanello | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
A dialogue between the UK and Kenya about repair and renewal. The pavilion portrays architecture as architecture defined by extraction, which causes inequality and environmental degradation. The jury notes the attempts to imagine a new relationship between architecture and geology
- justified the jury's choice.
An honorable mention - for creating a space for exchange, negotiation and renovation - was also given to the State Capitol Pavilion with the exhibition "Opera aperta" curated by Marina Otero Verzier and Giovanna Zabotti with an exhibition by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and MAIO Architects.
Pavilion of the Holy See
Photo: Andrea Avezzù | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
special honorable mentions for participants in the main exhibition
Special mention went to Tosin Oshinowo (Oshinowo Studio) for her project "Alternative Urbanism: The Self-Organized Markets of Lagos," presented at the main exhibition.
The project offers insights into the waste treatment markets of the industrialized economy. The dossier is a promising initiative for further research and knowledge creation on markets in Africa and the importance of markets as prototypes for innovation
- justified the jury's selection.
The exhibition "Alternative Urbanism: The Self-Organized Markets of Lagos"
Photo: Andrea Avezzù | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
An honorable mention also went to Boonserm Premthad for his "Elephant Chapel" project. - The architect created a durable structure using elephant dung.
"Elephant Chapel"
Photo: Marco Zorzanello | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
Golden Lions for lifetime achievement
The Lifetime Achievement Award this year went to Donna Haraway, an American biologist and philosopher, and Italian architect Italo Rota, who died last year.
Donna Haraway | Italo Rota
photo: Clara Mokri | photo: Claudio Moschin | illustrations courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
Donna Haraway, the jury's justification reads, is one of the most influential voices in contemporary thought at the intersection of social science, anthropology, feminist criticism and philosophy of technology. As an alternative to the Anthropocene, the researcher proposes the use of the term chthulucen emphasizing the need for human coexistence with other species.
Her work and philosophy, radically critical but at the same time optimistic and imaginative, are distinguished by their commitment to creating alternative worlds: constructing positive visions in which the difficulties of the present can be overcome or mitigated by creating new myths and cultivating new kin.
- justifies the jury.
Italo Rota , on the other hand, was hailed as a forerunner:
His vision was a world in which the meaning of living beings and biology in general, nature in its broadest possible definition, and finally science and technology applied together in one breathing being.
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