The Golden Lion for Architecture to the Brazilian pavilion with the Daar-Corriere.it group

VENICE The Golden Lions of the XVIII Venice Architecture Biennale have been awarded. Pavilion winner Brazil with Earth curated by Gabriela de Mates and Paulo Torres with an installation that includes numerous exhibitors.

The pavilion connects the public with the indigenous territories’ tradition of Quilombola housing and traditional ceremonies by filling the pavilion with earth. Winning group of the exhibition curated by the director of the exhibition, Leslie Lokko, the Daar group which includes an Italian architect, Alessandro Petti, with his wife Sandi Hilalfor their commitment to decolonization, including in Palestine, where they have worked for many years.

The pavilion is an indictment of the intervention in Borgo Rizza carried out in 1940 by the colonization body of the Sicilian large estate: the architects deconstructed the facade of the main fascist-era building in the village, transforming it into seats. I believe that Europe must be decolonized today, which is urgent and necessary.

Silver Lions for young participants in Olalekan Jeyifous (USA) for an installation that warns of the possible transformation of Africa into a huge amusement park.

Special mentions to Twenty Nine Studios by Sammy Baloji (Congo), to the South Africans of Wolff architects and to Thandi Loewenso (London) and for the national participations in Great Britain.

Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement to Baba Demas Nwoko (1935) designer, critic and set designer, the African Gaud, for his approach to architecture as an expanded field of activity encompassing both the material and immaterial world.

It seems like a gift of fate. In 1961 in France – recalls Nwoko – I had designed a caravanserai for a Mozart opera (The Abduction from the Menagerie, ed) transforming an opera into a three-dimensional context. Then for them I sang theOthello. And so I am honored today in Venice, which I thank, to remember that episode.