International Museum Day: the Architecture Biennale celebrates (and puts) sustainability into practice

Change. It’s the word that runs through the Venice Architecture Biennale curated in this eighteenth edition by Lesley Lokko, teacher, writer, founder and director of the African Futures Institute, in Ghana. The Laboratory of the Future this is the title of the great international exhibition which will remain open to the press on 18 May, precisely on International Museum Day promoted by ICOM (International Council of Museums) this year dedicated to the theme “Museums, Sustainability and Wellbeing”. Highlighting how places of art make a decisive contribution to the well-being and sustainable development of communities.

Objective: carbon neutrality

Reflections taken from the Architecture Biennale which will open to the public on May 20 (it will remain open until November 26) context in which they will face each other the themes of decolonization and decarbonization by focusing the spotlight on Africa. Not only. For the first time, a path to achieve carbon neutrality to combat climate change will be tested. A commitment that has already been made by the Biennale for all the events, including the Mostra Internazionale del Cinema – for both the 2021 and 2022 editions, obtaining carbon neutrality certification for both – and which is now being repeated for the major event on the ‘Architecture to be held between the Giardini, the Arsenale and other places in the lagoon.

As far as emissions are concerned, the objective of the Biennale was to completely eliminate the carbon footprint by working in two directions: reduce emissions by organizing all the events based on the principles of environmental sustainability and offset the residual ones by purchasing certified carbon credits both in India and in Colombia.

All involved

Inevitably, however, everyone, from suppliers to the public, will be involved in this change: they must participate in the reduction of the carbon footprint of the Architecture Biennale. The main actions implemented are: the use of energy from renewable sources; the reduction of materials and their recycling; the reuse of equipment and fittings; the inclusion of vegetarian dishes and zero-kilometer products in the catering offer; the optimization of logistics to reduce travel times. But since Venice is one of the destinations of mass tourism and mobility is the most relevant component of the carbon footprint one cannot stand by and watch. In this way, an awareness-raising work will also be done on visitors by communicating ways to reduce time.

“It was clear from the beginning – explained the curator – that The Laboratory of the Future would adopt ‘change’ as its essential gesture, making the exhibition a set of stories capable of reflecting the splendid kaleidoscope of ideas, aspirations, contexts”.

Telling the stories of our time

For the first time at the Architecture Biennale, the Special Projects of the Curator and the Special Participants constitute a large category, vast like the others, out of competition. Three of these categories, Mnemonics; Food, Agriculture and Climate Change; and Geography and Genre expressly examine the complex relationship between memory and architecture; between climate change, territorial practices and food production and between gender, architecture and performance. Works by young Africans and diasporics are presented, i Guests from the Futurearchitects, urban planners, engineers and academics whose work directly confronts the two themes of the exhibition, decolonization and decarbonization.

But the themes of the environment, the climate, the consequences that the emergency posed by climate change will have on our future can be found in almost all the pavilions. Already from the name. So that of Argentina at the Arsenale is called The Future of Wateror that of Korea entitled 2086: Together How? Which tells us about an eco-industrial revolution. Or that of Croatia Same as it Ever Was who tells us through architecture that dialogue between Man and Nature at the time of the climate crisis, or Denmark which with Coastal Imaginaries gives his vision on how to face the great ecological problems. But there are many food for thought and suggestions. Brazil is the clearest of all. His pavilion is called Earth and he talks about the populations and their territories. Or Belgium, with Live which asks us this question “How can we rethink architecture in a world of infinite resources?”.