Stephanie G. Mathis The Venice Architecture Biennale, also known as La Biennale di Venezia (the Venice Architecture Biennale), has been held since 1979. It is arguably the most influential exhibition of architecture in the world. This year’s edition was curated for the first time by an African architect, Lesley Lokko. She ensured that the exhibition had a strong African focus. The 2023 exhibition represents a shift in the global architectural landscape towards a more equitable representation.
The BiennaleBiennale is an institution of culture that was established in 1895. It represents a world order established by European imperialism. The BiennaleBiennaleBiennale is an international platform that brings together powerful academic and professional associations, material producers, and construction firms, as well as public authorities and developers. They meet in Venice to present and discuss their works.
Biennale sponsors are largely private, and many countries have their pavilions in Venice. Although an African curator does not have any influence on these pavilions, she is able to decide the shape and exhibitions of the main pavilion, Force Majeure, and Dangerous Liaisons sections.
I am a professor of Architecture with a focus on African Cities and non-western Architectural Forms. I attended the preview week in Venice. The African presence brings a new, complex perspective to the event that is needed.
Lesley Lokko & Demas Nwoko
A diffused blue glow is visible in the first room, the Corderie dell’Arsenale. This 300-metre-long building was where the Venetian Navy produced ropes for seven centuries. The blue light invites viewers to think about the idea of the “blue hour,” the period between sunset and night. The light is a new beginning for Lokko: “A moment in between dreaming and awakening…a moment of optimism.”
A Ghanaian-Scottish architect, educator, and novelist, Lokko is the first woman of color to curate the show. In her curatorial statement, she highlights the “laboratory of the future.” Rather than a place for scientific experiments, the laboratory needs to be thought of more as a workshop. Here, different practitioners can collaboratively test new forms of architecture. In the west, says Lokko, one continues to associate architects as the figures who build buildings. But they do much more; they build society, competency, and knowledge in a rapidly hybridizing and interwoven world.
Lokko challenges perspectives. She encourages visitors to see Africa as a place that can learn from Western models, not as one where they should be applied.
Lokko finds it significant that the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement was given to Demas Nwoko, a Nigerian artist and architect born in 1935.
His few buildings are described as “forerunners to the sustainable, resource-conscious, and culturally authentic expressions now sweeping the African continent and the globe.”
A good example is the Dominican Institute & Chapel that he finished in Ibadan Ni, Nigeria, in 1975. The African aesthetic and sense of place are used to reinterpret the motifs found in a Christian church.
Lokko’s approach represents a radical change in the way that the Biennale functions. This is a significant contribution to the creation of “contact zones,” places for productive exchanges between people with different viewpoints. It replaces old hierarchies with mutual respect and diversity.
The event this year sparked controversy due to the denial of visas for African architects. It would be a good place to start for mutual respect to remove the barriers that prevent African architects from attending and participating.
What’s On Show
Over half of the 89 participants, most of whom are young, invited to the show this year, come from Africa or the diaspora. The six sections and two main venues of the show, the Giardini, Arsenale, and Giardini, are all carefully choreographed.
The imagery of Africa’s future is embodied in the main pavilion where the Force Majeure exhibit takes place. A towering installation created by Nigerian artist OlalekanJeyifous. His images are powerful metaphors for the relationship between architecture and communities. There is a need to repair the damage caused by colonial powers.
In a separate room, the Oral Archive of Nairobi Collective Cave Bureau honors the oral tradition that has been passed down through generations to keep people in touch with the Earth. Three channels are displayed on a multi-channel screen. They say conversations with cave-dwelling communities, sequences from the Dangerous Liaisons section interwoven with the curator’s special project titled Food, Agriculture and Climate Change, Gender and Geography, Mnemonic, and Guests from The Future.
