Brazilian Pavilion receives the Golden Lion for Best National Participation

The official Brazilian representation at the 18. International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia with the project Terra [Earth] has received the main prize from the international jury of the exhibition.

The show is curated by Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares and features the participation of the Mbya-Guarani Indigenous people, Tukano, Arawak and Maku Indigenous peoples, Tecelãs do Alaká (Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá), Ilê Axé Iyá Nassô Oká (Casa Branca do Engenho Velho), Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto, Ayrson Heráclito, Day Rodrigues with collaboration of Vilma Patrícia Santana Silva (Grupo Etnicidades FAU-UFBA), Fissura collective, Juliana Vicente, Thierry Oussou and Vídeo nas Aldeias.

“Our curatorial proposal is based on thinking of Brazil as earth. Earth as soil, fertilizer, ground and territory. But also earth in its global and cosmic sense, as planet and common house of all life, human and non-human. Earth as memory, and also as future, looking at the past and at heritage to expand the field of architecture in the face of the most pressing contemporary urban, territorial and environmental issues,” say the curators.

According to the Venice Biennale jury, the Brazilian Pavilion was victorious for presenting “a research exhibition and architectural intervention that center the philosophies and imaginaries of Indigenous and Black population towards modes of reparation”.

The winners were selected by a jury made up of Italian architect Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Palestinian architect Nora Akawi and American curator Thelma Golden, alongside co-editor of Cityscapes Magazine Zimbabwean Tau Tavengwa and Polish architect Izabela Wieczorek. The 18. International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia has as a central theme The Laboratory of the Future and is curated by Lesley Lokko, Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and novelist.

Get to know more about the project here.

bienal.org.br