The jury for the open call for the curatorial team of the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 19th Biennial of Architecture in Venice met on Tuesday, March 19 for the second session. The jury selected, among the three shortlisted teams, the project “Sonic Investigations” by Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau and Valentin Bansac as the winning proposal to represent Luxembourg at the Venice Architectural Biennial in 2025.

The jury would like to congratulate the three selected teams for the secound round for the quality of their projects and relevant topics they decided to tackle. The three teams proposed ideas based on a detailed knowledge and pertinent analysis of the Luxembourg territory, while placing it at the heart of contemporary issues and challenges.

Following a rich and fruitful discussion, the Jury unanimously selected the project “Sonic Investigations” by Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau and Valentin Bansac to design the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale.

The project “Sonic Investigations,”centred around the acoustic practice of research on the Anthropocene, offers a sensitive exploration of Luxembourg’s territory, which cuts across different environments, positions, and voices. By reactivating our tendency to listen, it offers a new prism for understanding the territory, framing at the same time, the impact of human activity on our ecosystems.

The project was chosen for capacity to raise important contemporary issues related to the production of the built environment, its questioning of our normative apprehension of territories, well sourced and referenced documentation it draws on as well as its conceptual and curatorial consistency.

Its approach to research and design, driven by a desire to experiment and share new tools of understanding the built environment, convinced the jury, who also saw the opportunity to create a rich and positive dialogue around the questions raised about architecture and its related disciplines.

Statement of the curatorial team
Sonic investigations is an immersive, joyful and radical suggestion to focus on sound. In contemporary societies saturated with images, sight casts a shadow on other senses, key to fully apprehending the invisible dynamics of our sensitive relationship with territories. Following John Cage’s silent song 4’33’’, it is a proposal to close our eyes and actively listen. As a counter-project to the hegemony of images, the act of listening offers new possibilities to explore the built and natural environments and shift our focus towards giving voices to more-than-human agencies.

As a practical and theoretical research, the project serves as a tool to re-explore the dense territory of Luxembourg where sounds from biological, geological and anthropogenic beings blend into the intertwined soundscape of the Anthropocene. How to reveal the entangled character of specific contemporary situations in Luxembourg? Through listening, a new uncanny experience of space offers to reveal more than what we see as an opportunity to foster new thinking and sensorial approaches to architectural practices.

Photo © Simon Nicoloso

Biographies of the Curatorial Team
Mike Fritsch is a Luxembourgish architect, urbanist and educator working between Luxembourg and France. As a practising architect, Mike oscillates between large-scale transformation strategies and architectural repairs, in collaboration with l’AUC, this after having spent several years at OMA in Rotterdam. In parallel, Mike is teaching at the ENSA-Marseille where he manipulates new territorial narratives on adaptations and social interactions of the “already there”.

Alice Loumeau is a French-Canadian architect, researcher and cartographer. She conducts spatial investigations through writing and cartography, exploring the mutating territories of the Anthropocene. Alice graduated from the Experimentation in Arts and Politics master’s degree led by Bruno Latour at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). Alice has worked as an architect in Rotterdam at OMA/AMO, in Paris and London, and participates in exhibitions, publications, and residencies, including at the Villa Albertine in Marfa, Texas, in 2024.

Valentin Bansac is an architect, researcher and photographer from France. He previously worked at OMA/AMO with Rem Koolhaas where he participated in Countryside, the future, research and exhibition project at Guggenheim New York. Valentin graduated from the Experimentation in Arts and Politics master’s degree led by Bruno Latour at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). He is currently teaching a two-year research endeavour named Domesticated Foodscapes at the EPFL and participates in the program Organismo: Art in Applied Critical Ecologies facilitated by TBA21, a contemporary art foundation in Madrid.

In 2022, Alice and Valentin co-initiated MATTERS.xyz, a tentacular collective endeavour that explores new territorial narratives through interdisciplinary alliances and the accumulation of media.

Winning curatorial teams of the 1st round

The Jury

A Comparative Dialogue Act, a project by the Luxembourgish artist Andrea Mancini and the multidisciplinary collective Every Island will represent the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.

The project of the Luxembourg pavilion challenges the entrenched notion of individual artistic authorship by presenting a collection of works where artists relinquish ego in favour of a profound exploration of collective creativity through the medium of sound.

A Comparative Dialogue Act uses sound as a tool to explore different perspectives on identity and artistic research. An unprecedented collaboration by four emerging artists from diverse backgrounds, it brings together Spanish musician and performer Bella Báguena, French transdisciplinary artist Célin Jiang, Ankara-born performance Artist Selin Davasse and Swedish artist Stina Fors to offer four intersecting approaches to the multiple ways identity, performance and sound can meet. Navigating the realms of gender identity, Báguena weaves sounds inspired by intuition, motivation and a tableau of influences from pop culture to personal experiences. Jiang adopts a decolonial cyberfeminist approach, intertwining arts, technologies and digital humanities to provoke contemplation of identity within the context of transcultural aesthetics. Repurposing literary and performative techniques, Davasse embodies various feminine beasts with distinct syntactical, vocal and gestural characteristics to intimately traverse a speculative ethics of hospitality. And finally, Fors uses choreography, performance, drumming and vocals to explore the depths of a ‘sounding body’, unleashing a powerful voice that alternates between lethal force and seductive allure and showcasing the complexities of the self. A Comparative Dialogue Act offers a rich composition of singular voices brought together in a blurred sound artwork that pushes the boundaries of contemporary art production.

This exhibition investigates the transformative potential of sound as a medium for cultivating connection and understanding. It aims to transcend the limits set by singular perspectives of what sound can lend to the acts of interpreting, distorting and appropriating.

 

Performing artists

Selin Davasse
Residency: April 08–21
Selin Davasse (b. 1992, Ankara) lives and works in Berlin. Her performances repurpose disparate literary and performative techniques to enact and enforce a speculative ethics of hospitality between a bestial feminine stranger and a heterogeneous public. Embodying various narrative selves with distinct syntactical, vocal and gestural characteristics, she transmutes systems of thought into intimate and playful utterances oscillating between speech and song, in a permeable and unpredictable relationship to the viewer. Recent presentation settings include steirischer herbst, Graz (2023); Institute for Contemporary Arts, London (2023); Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2023); Art Encounters Biennial, Timișoara (2023); Kunsthalle Bratislava (2022); Wiener Festwochen, Vienna (2022); BJCEM – Biennale des Jeunes Créateurs de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Procida (2022); School of Waters, MEDITERRANEA19 Young Artists Biennale, San Marino (2021); Volksbühne, Berlin (2021); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, (2021).
Instagram: @radicalized_faghag

Célin Jiang
Residency: June 24–30
Célin Jiang is a French artist-researcher. Her work is transdisciplinary, political, and infiltrated: it aims to explore the relationship between art, technology, and digital humanities. The decolonial approach of her work is rooted in cyberfeminism. By questioning our perception of identities in a globalised context of transcultural aesthetics, Célin Jiang advocates interoperability and considers hybridisation as a sensitive vector of metamorphosis: how does the dissident potential of artistic expressions operate in the phygital era of social networks? Célin’s works have recently been shown at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2023); Bourse de commerce | Pinault Collection, Paris (2023); Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris (2023); Biennale Internazionale Donna, Trieste (2023); Château de Montjuïc, Barcelona (2023); Villa Arson, Nice (2023); VSRL, New York (2023) and Fondation Fiminco, Romainville (2022).
Instagram: @bis0u.magiqu3

Stina Fors
Residency: July 18–28
With a taste for the absurd and strange, Stina Fors (b. 1989, SE), a choreographer and performance artist, crafts unpredictable, once-in-a-lifetime performances. As a self-taught drummer and shocking vocalist, Fors tours with her one-woman-punk-band, Stina Force, claiming no two performances are ever the same. Extended ventriloquism and screams can be witnessed in her recent work, “A Mouthful of Tongues” – a magic show where the voice seems detached from the performer’s body. Fors’s work is filled with tension, wit, and raw power. She also teaches how to access extreme voices. Stina studied choreography at SNDO in Amsterdam, currently in Vienna, Austria. Her recent appearances include CA2M Móstoles (2023), Centrale Fies Dro (2023), MDT Stockholm (2023), Nobody’s Indiscipline Milano (2023), Secuencia#2/Fabra i Coats Barcelona (2023), Steinsland & Berliner Stockholm (2023), TQW Vienna (2023) Wiener Festwochen Vienna (2023), Brut Wien Vienna (2022), Campo Gent (2022), Inkonst Malmö (2022).
Instagram: @stinaforce

Bella Báguena
Residency: September 9–15
Bella Báguena (b. 1994, Valencia) is a Spanish trans non-binary woman who works with different disciplines such as music, performance, jewelry and other media. Bella centers her artistic production in a gender self-examination and an intuitive, emotional process, using her voice, body movement and identity, as well as objects, spaces and technologies, to create sound, video, sculptural or performative pieces in which the emotional charge and thought load of the trans woman’s identity becomes the key. Some of her recent performance contexts include Trauma Bar, Berlin (2023); Teatro Academico Gil Vicente, Coimbra (2023); A10 Exhibition x Injuve, Valencia (2023); Rokolectiv, Bucharest (2023); Ex Aterriza. Las Cigarreras, Alicante (2023); Construction Festival, Dresden (2023); Systema, Marseille (2023); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022); Dakota By Night. Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam (2022); Shape+ Platform. Meet Factory, Prague (2022).
Instagram: @xbellaxbaguenax

For the 60th Venice Biennale, the Luxembourg ministry of Culture has appointed Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg commissioner, and Mudam Luxembourg—Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, organiser of the Luxembourg Pavilion.

Commissionner appointed by the Ministry of Culture Luxembourg: Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg
Organiser: Mudam Luxembourg—Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
Curator: Joel Valabrega (assisted by Nathalie Lessure)
Exhibitors: Andrea Mancini & Every Island
Performing artists:
Selin Davasse | Residency: 08 – 21 April | Performances: 17 – 21 April
Célin Jiang | Residency: 24 – 30 June | Performances: 29 – 30 June
Stina Fors | Residency: 18 – 28 July | Performances: 27 – 28 July
Bella Báguena | Residency: 09 – 15 September | Performances: 13 – 14 September

The exhibition is accessible for the public during the Residency periods according to Arsenale’s opening hours.

The project of the Luxembourg pavilion challenges the entrenched notion of individual artistic authorship by presenting a collection of works where artists relinquish ego in favour of a profound exploration of collective creativity through the medium of sound.

The title, A Comparative Dialogue Act, encapsulates the nature of this experimental project – an investigation of diverse sonic languages and a contemplation of dialogue beyond the visual, into the immersive world of sound as a tool for negotiation.

This exhibition explores the potential of sound as a medium for cultivating connection and understanding. It aims to transcend the limits set by singular perspectives of what sound can lend to the acts of interpreting, distorting and appropriating.

The pavilion is conceived as an infrastructure for the transmission of sound. Technology is used to develop a local experiment investigating the transmission of knowledge and work in progress.

A programme of four residencies taking place over the duration of the Biennale Arte 2024 will transform the pavilion into a production space where each individual research will contribute to a shared body of work. An unprecedented collaboration by four emerging artists from diverse backgrounds, it brings together Spanish musician and performer Bella Báguena, French transdisciplinary artist Célin Jiang, Turkish artist Selin Davasse and Swedish artist Stina Fors to offer four intersecting approaches to the multiple ways identity, performance and sound can meet.

The artists are invited to explore the elements that define their individual practices and artistic methods. Each of them is asked to create a sound library representing their unique approach by the start of the Biennale Arte 2024. These libraries will be made available in the Pavilion space as a common tool. Each artist will appropriate and use this library to create a soundscape. The aim being to stimulate cooperation and community through an understanding and interpreting of what was made available.

The body of work, both the libraries and the residencies’ productions, will constantly be absorbed and integrated anew – challenging notions of authorship and appropriation.

Each artist will engage in a series of performances. The performance is part of the collaborative artwork and is the moment during which each artist presents his/her contribution in public. The resulting sequence of pieces will be published as a vinyl record, to be released at the end of the Biennale Arte 2024.

A Comparative Dialogue Act offers a rich composition of singular voices brought together in a blurred sound artwork that pushes the boundaries of contemporary art production.

The jury of the call for projects for the conception of the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale met on Tuesday, January 9 and selected the three projects for the second jury session from among 8 applications received.

The jury appreciated the relevance of the themes developed in the selected applications and is confident that they will help to build a discourse around the Architecture discipline.

The members of the jury for the call for entries for the Luxembourg pavilion would like to thank all the applicants for the interest they have shown, by taking part in the call, in Luxembourg’s presence at this international event in 2025. The jury also salutes the work undertaken by the various teams on this occasion.

Selected teams :

The jury is made of:

▪ Maribel Casas, Director, luca – Luxembourg Center for Architecture;
▪ Michelle Friederici, President, Ordre des Architectes et des Ingénieurs conseils Luxembourg;
▪ Claudine Hemmer, Visual Arts and Architecture Advisor, Ministry of Culture Luxembourg;
▪ Marija Marić, Curator of the Luxembourg Pavilion 2023;
▪ Eléonore Mialonier, Project Manager Architecture/Design/Crafts, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg;
▪ Marion Waller, General Director, Pavillon de l’Arsenal, Paris;
▪ Nemanja Zimonjić, Director, Ten Studio, Zürich/Belgrade.

The deadline for the second round is March 15, 2024, at midnight. The laureate will be announced on March 27, 2024.

More details about the call can be found here.

The unmissable Biennale di Venezia has drawn to a close with the Luxembourg Pavilion Down to Earth designed and curated by Francelle Cane and Marija Marić, a confirmed hit with the public.

Officially opened on 18 May 2023 in the presence of HRH the Great Duchess, the Minister for Culture Sam Tanson, Luxembourg’s Ambassador to Rome HE Michèle Pranchère-Tomassino and over 200 guests, the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale has been packed ever since. The Down to Earth exhibition welcomed a total of 102,118 visitors during the entire Biennale which itself recorded over 285,000 visitors, along with 14,150 visitors to the preview, making it the second most visited Architecture Biennale ever.

Down to Earth, designed by architects, curators and researchers Francelle Cane and Marija Marić, was a critical behind-the-scenes exploration of the current paradigm of space mining, as well as its media narratives. Replicating a Lunar Laboratory—the research spaces designed to not only run full-scale tests of space mining technologies but also operative as media studios producing the visual imaginaries of the extractions on the Moon and beyond—the exhibition included contributions by Armin Linke, Lev Bratishenko, Jane Mah Hutton, Anastasia Kubrak, Amelyn Ng, Bethany Rigby, and Fred Scharmen, as well as collaborations with different institutions, including Canadian Centre for Architecture.

The pavilion was also a meeting point for fruitful encounters between creatives, curators, and the general public. In addition to the visits organised in September during the Pavilion Days, side-events such as public lectures and roundtables were also held both in Luxembourg and abroad.

“Looking back at our project in Venice, we find ourselves truly humbled by all the incredible encounters, conversations, and collaborations that deeply shaped our project. Starting with the Moon, but coming down to Earth, our exhibition aimed at raising a critical discussion around our relationship with resources, testing at the same time the boundaries between curatorial work, research, and social engagement. We thank all the conversation partners and collaborators for contributing to this project, the journalists for their important questions and curiosity about our work in Venice, and the institutions who supported our work from the very beginning”, the curators Francelle Cane and Marija Marić stated.

The exhibition was not only a success with the public, but also featured in the national and international press.

The publication Staging the Moon: Resource Extraction Beyond Earth, developed during the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, contains texts by the curators and photographs by artists Armin Linke and Ronni Campana. It explores the topic of extra-terrestrial resources, highlighting the inextricable links between space mining and its portrayal in the media, the legal framework for its development, as well as the concept of commons and comradeship.
The publication costs €32 and is available from the publisher Spector Books.

Kultur | lx, following a decision by the Ministry of Culture, was tasked for the first time with commissioning the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, a role in which it will continue for the development of future art and architecture pavilions in conjunction with the Luxembourg cultural institutions involved.

Italia Music Export is hosting the next “She Is The Music”, an international songwriting camp dedicated entirely to creative women in music. The camp will take place during the Milano Music Week from November 20 to 24 at LePark studios, where six Italian female artists will join six international music creators for five exciting days of co-writing sessions. Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg is proud to present C’est Karma, a Luxembourgish artist who will take part in this year’s songwriting camp. The 21-year-old is about to finish her new album, which she will present on a small tour in January 2024, including the Eurosonic Festival in Groningen.

She Is the Music was launched in 2019, with American chart-topping singer Alicia Keys among its founders, with the aim of increasing the number of women in music, from artists and producers to engineers and songwriters: it’s an independent, global network that operates as a unifying organisation for women from across the industry, creating strength and impact on a global scale.

As the camp will take place during the Milano Music Week, a must-attend event that brings together all the major players in the Italian music industry, Italia Music Export is also planning to organise a music panel in collaboration with She Is The Music, with the participation of all the participants.

She Is The Music Songwriting Camp is produced by Italia Music Export and She Is The Music in partnership with CNM — Centre national de la musique (France), WBM — Wallonie-Bruxelles Musiques (Belgium), The Spanish Wave (Spain), VI.BE (Belgium) and Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg.

More information:
https://sheisthemusic.org/
https://www.milanomusicweek.it/

Following a call for applications for the Research and Creative Residency for Architects, Architectural Researchers, Illustrators and Authors at the Academia Belgica in Rome, 2024, 6 proposals were received. At a meeting on 13 October, the jury commended the range, focus and quality of the projects submitted.  The jury members were César Reyes Nájera (University of Luxembourg, Master in Architecture), Karine Bouton (neimënster) and Nathalie Kerschen (Resident 2023).
The jury unanimously decided to award the residency to Dirk Kesseler for his proposal ‘Research into architecture in illustration’.

Jury Statement
The jury was impressed by Dirk Kesseler’s multidisciplinary approach and his clear and frank proposal. It was also won over by his sensitive and extremely personal approach to architecture—which has gradually become the central focus of his work and modus operandi—and the sound presentation of his arguments.

The jury also felt that the practical research Dirk Kesseler proposed to conduct in Rome, a city that is representative of antiquity and thus a stark contrast to the city where he lives, would undoubtedly be an excellent opportunity for him to develop his practice and offer an interesting challenge.


The (extract from the application file)
“Exterior and interior architectural structures, became centerpieces of my compositions, functioning as visual frames, set pieces and integral parts of my storytelling. I spent more time noticing subtle details in the structural and decorative parts of my surroundings, analysing changes in material and how it affects light and shadows.
But my artistic ambition is not to display built structures in a photographic view, but to rearrange their most recognisable shapes into interesting graphical compositions: expanding and stretching spaces to deliver unusual viewpoints, provoking a range of feelings from excitement to the unease –  sometimes even bordering on the surreal, not adhering to the traditional modes of perspective drawing, but manipulating space for the desired effect and many times not even using the architectural spaces as set pieces for human narratives, but letting them become the characters themselves, devoid of human interaction.”

 

About Dirk Kesseler
Dirk Kesseler (1995) is Luxemburgish illustrator, animator and graphic designer based in Berlin.
He graduated with a degree in illustration from the Design Akademie Berlin (now called the Berlin School of Design and Communication) in 2019 and completed a Masters at the Universität der Künste Berlin in 2023.
He uses both traditional and digital drawing techniques to connvey his naive sense of humour and absurd dreams. His works spans several disciplines, including comic books, editorials, posters and product design.
Dirk Kesseler  has presented his work at several international events, such as Negotiation Matters: Berlin, Tel Aviv (2018) and Neurotitan (2020) and Tabook Festival (2021).
He received a Luxembourg Music Award in the category Best Upcoming Artwork Designer (2018), the Shimon-Peres Prize for the collective project Negotiation Matters (2021), and a Merit Award during 3×3 Annual No. 19 (2022).

 

Since its official inauguration on May 18 in the presence of H.R.H. the Grand Duchess, the Minister of Culture Sam Tanson, H.E. Michèle Pranchère-Tomassino, Ambassador of Luxembourg in Rome, and more than 200 professionals, the Luxembourg pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale is a resounding success with the public. Halfway through the Biennale, which closes on 26 November, the “Down to Earth” exhibition had attracted nearly 30,000 visitors by 30 August.

Starting from Luxembourg’s role in the development of space mining, the exhibition Down to Earth by Francelle Cane and Marija Marić, critically explores what goes on behind the scenes of the space industry and the media and scientific narratives on which its future development is based. Conceived as a Lunar laboratory – research spaces designed to test space robots in real life but also serving as media studios for the promotion of of the race to space – the exhibition in the Luxembourg pavilion draws on contributions from numerous researchers, artists and collaborators.

The exhibition has not only been very well received by the public, but also by the press:

“Mine, all mine. The Moon has long inspired architects. Now curators Francelle Cane and Marija Marić image what would look like if human started mini nits resources” – Financial Times, May 20, 2023.

“ (…) architecture can be a force for emancipation and a stimulating intellectual field. The Luxembourg pavilion in Venice is proof of this.”, Tageblatt, May 20, 2023.

“The curators want to launch a debate on the consequences of perceiving space as an economic area crossed by national borders. (…) For their exhibition, the curators will transport the moon to the Arsenale and reproduce it ‘down to earth’. (…) In this way, the Luxembourg contribution to the biennial is the simulation of a simulation“. – Bauwelt, 15 May 2023.

Upcoming events :

14 + 15.09 | Pavilion Days, Venice
During Pavilion Days, to be held on 14 and 15 September, curators Francelle Cane and Marija Marić will welcome professionals for a guided tour (by invitation), each day at 11.15am as part of a tour route through the heart of the Arsenale.

21.09 | “Down to Earth” conference, Luxembourg
For their first public lecture in Luxembourg, the two curators of the Luxembourg pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, Francelle Cane and Marija Marić, present their research project and the exhibition “Down to Earth”.
Further information: luca.lu

The Down to Earth exhibition is open until 26 November.
www.venicebiennale.kulturlx.lu

Following a month of assembly, the Sale d’Armi of the Arsenale in Venice, which has hosted the Luxembourg pavilion of the art and architecture biennials since 2018, finally opened its doors to the public on the 20th of May. Down to Earth, the exhibition developed by architects, curators and researchers Francelle Cane and Marija Marić, has received an outstanding response from both the press and visitors.

The opening week of the Venice Architecture Biennale represents a special moment for the professionals who attend, between a family reunion and a giant symposium, drawing in all the profiles, emerging or confirmed, and all the trends in architectural research. The professional days are important for those who defend a project, both to expand their network and to attract media attention.

During this marathon, the two curators Francelle Cane and Marija Marić conducted a series of interviews with the national and international press, before officially inaugurating the Luxembourg pavilion on the 18th of May, in the presence of H.R.H. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Sam Tanson, Minister of Culture, H.E. Michèle Pranchère-Tomassini, Luxembourg’s Ambassador to Rome, and more than two hundred Luxembourg and foreign guests.

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A national pavilion focused on the issue of resources

Starting from Luxembourg’s role in the development of space mining, the exhibition Down to Earth by Francelle Cane and Marija Marić, critically explores what goes on behind the scenes of the space industry and the media and scientific narratives on which its future development is based. Conceived as a Lunar laboratory – research spaces designed to test space robots in real life but also serving as media studios for the promotion of of the race to space – the exhibition in the Luxembourg pavilion draws on contributions from numerous researchers, artists and collaborators.

The scenographic elements developed during the collective research process offer three ways of understanding the subject through a film, a workshop and a book. Armin Linke’s film Cosmic Market, made in collaboration with the Pavilion’s curators, shows the links between scientific research and the different interpretations of space legislation, between technological development and the creation of new markets, both on Earth and beyond. A collaboration between the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) and the Luxembourg Pavilion, the workshop “How to: mind the moon” takes as its starting point a reflection on five lunar materials, sketching out a new type of “materials library” in which humour is not absent. The book Staging the Moon, a stand-alone piece published by Spector Books (Leipzig; design: Studio OK-RM), contains critical essays by the two curators, as well as contributions by Armin Linke and photographer Ronni Campana.

Down to Earth thus presents in an immersive and inventive way the results of essential research into the question of resource exploitation, which fits perfectly with the theme of the Biennale’s international exhibition “Laboratory of the Future”, curated by Lesley Lokko. Rooted in the blind spots of official history, the international exhibition places architectural reflection under the sign of imagination, its main factor of change, and of ethics, which must guide us in our approach to the common space where we draw our resources.

This topic was at the heart of “(Re) penser les ressources“, a francophone discussion organised by the Belgian Pavilion in which the women curators participated on Saturday the 20th of May, alongside contributors and curators from the Belgian, Canadian and French pavilions.

Awards in line with the artistic direction

The jury of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, composed of Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli (president, Italy), Nora Akawi (Palestine), Thelma Golden (United States), Tau Tavengwa (Zimbabwe) and Izabela Wieczorek (Poland), determined a list of winners that perfectly reflected the key themes of the Biennale: “decolonization and decarbonization”.

The Golden Lion for the best national participation was awarded to Brazil for an exhibition based on research and “an architectural intervention centred on the philosophies and imaginaries of indigenous and black populations that considers the modalities of reparation”. A special mention as a national entry went to Great Britain for the curatorial concept and spatial setting “celebrating the power of everyday rituals as forms of resistance and spatial practices in diasporic communities”.

On the international side, the Golden Lion went to DAAR – Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal for “their longstanding political engagement with architectural and learning practices of decolonisation in Palestine and Europe”.

In addition, Demas Nwoko, a Nigerian-born artist, designer and architect, was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition. Demas Nwoko has been at the forefront of modern art in Nigeria. As an artist, he strives to incorporate contemporary techniques into architecture and scenography to highlight African subjects in much of his work. His work will be on display in the Stirling Pavilion in the Giardini.

For its first appointment as organiser and coordinator of the Luxembourg pavilion, Kultur | lx was able to rely on the experience of luca – Luxembourg Center for Architecture. In charge of the Luxembourg presence in Venice for both the Art and Architecture Biennials, Kultur | lx intends to further extend its contacts and capitalise upon the successful experience of this biennial.

Down to Earth, by Francelle Cane and Maria Marić can be seen until 26 November 2023, 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Arsenale, Sale d’Armi A, 1st floor.

The jury of the call for applications for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art 2024 met for a second round on Tuesday 25 April. Among the four finalists, it selected the project A Comparative Dialogue Act by Andrea Mancini & Every Island.

On 23 January 2023, Kultur | lx, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Mudam Luxembourg, launched a call for applications for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art 2024 and received twenty-two applications.

Following a first round on 8 March 2023, the jury composed of Adam Budak (Director, Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover), Michelle Cotton (Head of the Artistic Programming and Content Department, Mudam Luxembourg), Hélène Doub (Head of the Visual Arts Department, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg), Hélène Guénin (Director, MAMAC | Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain de Nice), Stilbé Schroeder (Curator, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain), Bettina Steinbrügge (Director, Mudam Luxembourg, President of the Jury), Joel Valabrega (Curator of Performance and Moving Image, Mudam Luxembourg) has selected four proposals for the second round.

 

The jury’s statement
The jury unanimously chose the proposal of Andrea Mancini and Every Island, which it considered the most contemporary and unique proposal in terms of form and content. The collective won over the judges with its concept of the Luxembourg Pavilion as a site of artistic production. Entitled A Comparative Dialogue Act, the project takes the form of an open laboratory in which the collective initiates research processes and invites other collaborators to jointly develop a collage-style soundscape throughout duration of the Biennale, encompassing everything from experimental sounds and melodic structures to the spoken word. The collective will invite a young generation of sound artists and body performers whose practices speak to the many shapes performance can take, to further develop and respond to the installation on site in a production studio integrated into the pavilion’s architecture.

It is an exceptionally generous project; representative of the current efforts being led towards collectively developing narratives and allowing the public to acquire fundamental insights into artistic processes. It will see the group take on an experimental approach to creating a programme for the Biennale. A Comparative Dialogue Act can only exist as each part and intervention responds to what came before and after, thereby creating a cohesive and organic whole that will evolve and expand throughout the duration of the exhibition. Within a clear, carefully constructed and open display, it will offer an exciting synthesis of production and reception.

The project speaks to the engagement of a country that is constantly in flux and open to change. Similarly, the composition of the collective is representative of the great diversity and linguistic variety characteristic of Luxembourg.

 

The selected team
The winning team consists of Andrea Mancini and Every Island.
The pavilion is to be curated by Joel Valabrega.

Andrea Mancini (b. 1989) is a luxembourgish artist and musician based in Brussels. His practice is multidisciplinary and investigating the interrelation of space, subject and sound through installation, video and performance by using confrontations in the intangible materiality of sound. Andrea’s work is also using codes from the club-culture, a scene in which he’s been emerging in the past years. Some of his recent projects have been Minerals (audiovisual installation & performance, Rotondes), Matter of Deep Dreaming (audiovisual installation & performance, Casino Luxembourg) & New Age Landscape (sound and video installations, Casino Display residency).

Every Island is a design collective formed in 2021 by Alessandro Cugola, Caterina Malavolti, Damir Draganić, Juliane Seehawer, Martina Genovesi, based in Brussels. The collective investigates performativity in space through ephemeral architectures and installations. Using ambiguity as a design tool, space is conceived as a scenography for transitions, of roles, of stages and of meanings. Every Island has among others carried out the following projects: Maintenance as an act of Care (Residence in Off the grid- Casco, Leuven) Off-Temple (Santarcangelo Festival), Scenography for a party (MUDAM, Luxembourg), Welcome: a ceremony (Stam Europa, Brussels)

Joel Valabrega (b. 1991) is Curator of Performance and Moving Image at Mudam Luxembourg. She holds a master’s degree in Architecture (Politecnico di Milano and IUAV of Venice). She has worked within the institutional context (Hangar Bicocca, Triennale Milano, V-A-C Foundation and Mudam Luxembourg) as well as in independent spaces. Together with Davide Giannella, Giovanna Silva and Delfino Sisto Legnani she is responsible for programming MEGA, a Milanese project space. She has previously worked as visiting curator at the V-A-C Foundation in Moscow & Venice (2018-2019). She has curated exhibitions, performances and major new commissions with artists including Monira Al Qadiri, Tarek Atoui, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Cecilia Bengolea, Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust, Joanna Dudley, William Engelen, Lara Favaretto, Nicholas Grafia and Mikolaj Sobczak, Trajal Harrell, Yasmine Hugonnet, Christian Jankowski, Jacopo Jenna, M¥SS KETA, Ligia Lewis, Taus Makhacheva, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Gianni Pettena, Alessandro di Pietro, Éliane Radigue, James Richards, Michele Rizzo, Mika Rottenberg, Vasya Run, Sam Stewart, Strasse, Nora Turato, Guan Xiao and ∞OS. Her curatorial practice is carried out alongside research and collaboration with art magazines.

 

The International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Established in 1893, the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art – La Biennale di Venezia is one of the oldest and most important international platforms for contemporary art. In addition to the main exhibitions organised by curators, some 90 countries participate in the Biennale with national contributions.

Appointed in December 2022 by the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, the Brazilian curator and current artistic director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand – MASP, Adriano Pedrosa, will be the General Curator of the 2024 Arte Biennale.

The president of the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, Roberto Cicutto, envisages the next edition of the event not as ‘a catalogue of the existing, but [as an event that] gives form to the contradictions, dialogues and kinships without which art would remain an enclave devoid of vital sap’.

The 60th International Exhibition of Contemporary Art – La Biennale di Venezia will be held from 20 April to 24 November 2024.