Homes for Luxembourg
The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Arsenale – Venice, Italy
May 22 – November 21, 2021

The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia opened its doors to the public on Saturday 22 May 2021 with a silent opening. Set up for the second time at the Arsenale’s Sale d’Armi, the Luxembourg Pavilion will host until 21 November 2021 an exhibition entitled “Homes for Luxembourg” as well as a residency program and series of events organised in Luxembourg and Venice. The Ministry of Culture and LUCA, in collaboration with the network of National Pavilions, plan to organize a joint weekend of vernissages this autumn, in Venice, when it will be possible to travel safely again.

As in the previous years, LUCA Luxembourg Center for Architecture was charged by the commissioner, the Ministry of Culture, to act as the curator and organiser of the Luxembourg Pavilion. Initially planned to open up in May 2020 and postponed twice, the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, entitled “How will we live together?”, is curated by the Lebanese architect Hashim Sarkis and organised by La Biennale di Venezia and its new president Roberto Cicutto.

Homes for Luxembourg
The first pandemic of the Anthropocene hardly left a stone unturned. Where decades of promoting the concept of sustainability failed, the spreading virus succeeded in the wink of an eye. The collective experience of being catapulted into a way of living within a limited radius, minimal contacts, and reduced consumption provoked a dramatic shakeup of mindsets. It set a spotlight on the relationship between architecture and land, urban and rural, interior and exterior, home and work/study, built environment and nature.

Referring to the official motto of this year’s Biennale, How will we live together?, the Luxembourg contribution to the 17th International Architecture Exhibition comes with an exhibition that reflects on these dualities. The modular installation in the Sale d’Armi – designed by the delegated curator Sara Noel Costa de Araujo (Studio SNCDA) on behalf of the curator and organiser LUCA Luxembourg Center for Architecture – and several contributions to the architecture magazine Accattone explore ways of reversible living, offering a vision for a model of repurposing land as new urban commons, providing new forms of togetherness. The contributors to this publication come from diverse disciplines, and include architects, artists, authors, urban planners, photographers, designers, engineers, curators, researchers, ecologists, developers, lawyers…

As the second central element of the Pavilion, LUCA initiated and set up Luxembourg’s first-ever curatorial residency program at La Biennale di Venezia. Emerging curators, mediators, scenographers, authors, bloggers, and activists in the field of architecture have the possibility to explore this year’s Architecture Biennale, get a first-hand overview of the current state of international discourse, gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities of contributing to the world’s most important architecture exhibition, enhance their professional abilities, and establish important contacts and develop ideas for own projects. The Emerging Talent Program will be launched as soon as sanitary conditions permit it.

A series of cultural events, curated and organized by LUCA both in Venice and Luxembourg from May to November and an evolutive website allow anyone, wherever they are, to follow and take part in the life of the Pavilion.

more. www.architecturebiennale.lu