Arts & Entertainment

Architecture Biennale explores sustainability, social inclusion

By Laura Serrano-Conde

Venice, Italy, May 22 (EFE).- Modern society must embrace inclusion, reject social inequality and respect nature. These are the key motifs encapsulated by this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, which opened to the public Saturday.

The event runs until 21 November, having been postponed twice due to the pandemic last year.

The virus is still with us, and visitors must wear masks and pass through health controls to enter the 60 national pavilions and venues at the Biennale.

The slogan for this year’s edition, curated by Lebanese architect Hashim Sarkis, is “How will we live together?” an idea that has been explored by the structures on display.

Organizers only decided to go ahead with the Biennale at the last minute, meaning some countries’ entries will be installed in the coming days, such as Peru’s offering.

Judges will therefore only get to work in August, once all the participant designs have been submitted.

Denmark’s offering at the explosion explores the essential nature of water, which for the show has been collected from Venice’s iconic canal system. The pavilion is laid with a concrete floor and the visitors walk through the structure following the flow of water, which runs through the building and collects in pools.

German architects staged an empty pavilion with blank walls and QR codes that bring the visitor to the year 2038 via a series of videos criticizing capitalism and defending the natural world and the need to protect the environment.

The United Kingdom’s pavilion criticizes the privatization of public space while Japanese architects constructed a traditional house from local wood.

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