Applications to represent Portugal at the Venice Architecture Biennale will be open, and not just by invitation, starting next year, the Ministry of Culture announced on Wednesday.
In addition to “changing the model for selecting the official Portuguese representation” “to ensure broad participation”, the authority also announced, in a statement, a new location for the Portuguese Pavilion, which is no longer at the Franchetti Palace on the Grand Canal in Venice, but will move to the Fondaco Marcello, next to the Grand Canal.
The 19th International Architecture Exhibition – Venice Biennale will take place from 10 May to 23 November 2025.
The selection process for Portuguese representation “will now include, in a first phase, a call for expressions of interest, which will allow all those who wish to participate to submit applications.”
“Participation is open to architects and professionals linked to the disciplinary area of architecture”reads the statement.
In the last edition, as in previous editions, a limited competition was held, in which architects and architectural firms were invited to participate.
According to the Ministry of Culture, “applications may be individual or collective, and only one application may be submitted per person.”
Among the applications received, three will be selected, based on the “quality and coherence of the curatorial proposal, the response to the theme launched by the general curator of the Venice Biennale 2025. [Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Coletivo]of the Curriculum vitae of the candidate/s, and the appropriation of the pavilion space.”
These three proposals will be chosen by a group “representing diverse professional backgrounds and experiences in the disciplinary field of architecture: Ana Jara, Ana Vaz Milheiro, Diogo Passarinho, Inês Lobo and Luís Santiago Baptista.”
TO The second phase of the competition will follow the rules established for the previous limited competition model..
The project “Fertile Futures”, curated by Andreia García, from Architectural Mattersrepresented Portugal at the Venice Architecture Biennale between 20 May and 26 November 2023, under the theme “The Laboratory of the Future”.
For the next edition of the Architecture Biennale, and for three years, the official Portuguese pavilion will be installed at the Fondaco Marcello.
“After the lease with the previous space, Palazzo Franchetti, was terminated, the Ministry of Culture understood that it was It is necessary to find a new space that guarantees better exhibition conditions”, says the guardianship, adding that the new one, with a surface area of 370 square metres and with “two open and spacious spaces on a single ground floor”, “has a central location, next to the Grand Canal”.
Until the end of November, Palazzo Franchetti will host the Portuguese Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale, where the “Greenhouse” project by curators and artists Mónica de Miranda, Sónia Vaz Borges and Vânia Gala will be on display.
Portugal’s Pavilion at the Venice Biennale will have a “Creole Garden”
The opening date of the competition for Portugal’s representative at the Architecture Biennale and the respective budget allocation have not been revealed.
The competition for the Official Representation of Portugal at the 2025 Venice Biennale Architecture Exhibition is one of eight competitions of the Project Support Programme planned in the DGArtes annual declaration for 2024, published on 28 March, still under the management of the previous Government.
The amounts and deadlines for the opening of these eight competitions will be defined by the new Government.who took office on April 2.
To date, these deadlines and amounts have not yet been revealed.
Source: Observadora
