We are thrilled! One of the pavilions we set up entirely for this architecture biennial earned the Golden Lion! Intense months full of work and effort led to great satisfaction!
EARTH, this is the title of the exhibition, was curated by architects Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares, with the participation of Mbya-Guarani indigenous peoples; Tukano, Arawak and Maku indigenous peoples; Tecelãs do Alaká; Ilê Axé Iyá Nassô Oká; Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto; Ayrson Heráclito; Day Rodrigues with the collaboration of Vilma Patrícia Santana Silva; Colective Fissura; Juliana Vicente; Thierry Oussou and Video nas Aldeias.
The pavilion, which our team set up entirely, thinks of Brazil as land, a word that here takes on a double meaning: land as soil, manure, territory, but also as planet and common home of human and non-human life. A concept that brings back the earth as both memory and future, looking to the past to expand the field of architecture in relation to the most pressing contemporary issues.
Structured in two galleries, the exhibition first challenges the colonial narrative that the city of Brasilia was built on nothing, revealing instead how indigenous peoples had already been removed from the region-from their land-to be relegated to the margins of the modernist city. Then, by means of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian land and territory socio-spatial knowledge projects and practices, the curators refer us back to ancestral knowledge and archaeology, building on the memorial heritages of reference.
A journey that starts from the earth as a material and arrives at its global and cosmic meaning, leading to reflections on our use of it as a society, decolonization, and collective memory.
Building this pavilion was an incredible experience; we are still in disbelief. Absolutely not to be missed.
A photo report of the intense implementation phase will be available soon, below is the photo gallery courtesy of Rafael.
Thanks to @eiletz.ortigas architects for choosing us again this year!
View of the exhibition Terra, Brazilian participation at the 18. International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Rafa Jacinto / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo