Portuguese architects and the Angolan architect and curator, one of the creators of the Angola Pavilion project at the Venice Biennale of Art 2013, winner of the Golden Lion, are among the guests invited by the event's general curator, Hashim Sarkis, to participate in the collective exhibition of the event.
In addition to the 63 participations in national pavilions - in which Portugal will be officially represented by the project "In Conflict", created by the atelier depA, collective of Porto - the biennial organizes a collective exhibition with 114 participants from 46 countries, divided into six groups, with proper title, dispersed in several areas of Venice.
In the exhibition "As New Households", which will be on display at the Arsenale, there will be a project by the atelier Aires Mateus, from Lisbon, by the duo of architects Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus, who was already present at the collective exhibition of the 2016 biennial, "1010" , and in 2012, integrated in the project "Lisbon Ground", of the official Portuguese representation of that year.
Atelier Aires Mateus is the author, among other projects, of the Center for Contemporary Creation Olivier Debré, in Tours, France, the Museum of Design and Contemporary Art, in Lausanne, Switzerland, city for which they also won the competition of the Museum of Photograph by Elysée.
They are also the authors of projects such as the Faculty of Architecture, in Tournai, Belgium, the renovation of the Colégio da Trindade, in Coimbra, a building dating from the 16th century, the Centro de Artes de Sines and the Convivial Center in Grândola, besides a residential complex in Alcácer do Sal, in addition to a residence in Herdade da Aroeira, Almada, the Santo Tirso Call Center, and a building in Lagoa das Furnas, on the island of S. Miguel, Azores.
In the exhibition "Across Borders", in the Giardini, Central Pavilion, there will be a project by the Angolan architect and curator Paula Nascimento, one of the authors, with Stefano Pansera, of the project for the 2013 national pavilion of Angola - "Luanda, Cidade Encyclopedic" - based in photographs by the artist Edson Chagas. It was the first African country to win a Golden Lion at a Venice Art Biennial.
Nascimento has developed curatorial works in exhibitions in Angola, South Africa, Italy and France, and in 2019, she was invited by the organization of ARCOlisboa to create an unprecedented project for the presentation of African galleries.
She has been the guest curator of Catchupa Factory, in Cape Verde, home space for photographers from Portuguese-speaking African countries, and was one of the founders of Colectivo Pés Descalços, a non-profit organization that develops cultural and educational projects in Luanda.
For this exhibition at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Marko Brajovic, from São Paulo, composed of Marko Brajovic and Bruno Bezerra, and Acasa Gringo Cardia Design, from Rio de Janeiro, Gringo Cardia, were also invited in Brazil in a joint project with AIKAX, Takumã Kuikuro, from Amazonas, and with People's Palace Projects, from Paul Heritage, from London, United Kingdom.
In the exhibition "As Emerging Communities", also at Arsenale, will be, coming from Praia, Cape Verde, the studio Storia Na Lugar, composed by Patti Anahory and Cesar Schofield Cardoso, and in the exhibition "As One Planet", in Giardini, Central Pavilion , will be the ateliers from Brazil, Mabe Bethônico, from Belo Horizonte, and Spbr arquitectos, from São Paulo.
The other exhibitions are entitled "Among Diverse Beings", still, at the Arsenale, and "How will we play together?", In Forte Marghera.
The Venice Biennale of Architecture will open its doors on May 22, with security rules to contain the pandemic, and an expanded program of exhibitions, publications, meetings, shows and transmission of the installation of the national pavilions.
Despite the difficult situation that Italy currently faces, in a pandemic context, the organization decided to proceed with the realization of this edition of the biennial - the 17th International Exhibition of Architecture -, forced to postpone 2020 to this year, and which should continue until next November 21st.
Portugal will be officially represented through a project created by the atelier depA, collective of Porto, whose program will consist of a cycle of debates to be held between Venice, Lisbon and Porto, which has already started, and an exhibition under the theme "In Conflict", to be presented at the Giustinian Lolin Palace in Venice.
Brazil will participate in this biennial with the project entitled "Utopias and common life", curated by José Olympio da Veiga Pereira (Fundação Bienal de São Paulo) and curated by Alexandre Brasil, André Luiz Prado, Bruno Santa Cecilia, Carlos Alberto Maciel, Henrique Penha and Paula Zasnicoff.
Aiano Bemfica, Cris Araújo, Edinho Vieira, Alexandre Delijaicov (Metrópole Fluvial Research Group - Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo), Amir Admoni, Gustavo Minas, Joana França, Leonardo Finotti and Luiza Baldan complete the exhibition project team of Brazil that will be installed in the Giardini, in Venice.
