Volkswagen is the main partner of the curatorial team for the German Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2023 in Venice. The German Pavilion is being commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building. Volkswagen supports the concept for the German Pavilion, which focuses on the essential topic of sustainability, including the aspects of care, repair and maintenance.
The exhibition awaiting visitors to the German Pavilion at this year’s Architecture Biennale will focus on concepts for enabling the ecologically sustainable and socially just development of urban spaces. The pavilion will address, above all, opportunities for recyclability, maintenance and revitalisation that hold the potential for a considerably enhanced contribution to resource protection.
Benita von Maltzahn, Head of Cultural Engagement at Volkswagen: ‘The Architecture Biennale will be a future laboratory. Jointly with its partners, ARCH+ will present an extremely exciting approach to the future development of our cities. Our societal responsibility includes providing support at exactly the point where the dialogue on sustainable living space, integration and social justice begins.’
Anh-Linh Ngo, architectural theorist, curator and editor-in-chief of ARCH+: ‘The German contribution to the 2023 Architecture Biennale is centred around the thesis that social issues are an inextricable part of sustainability. The resource-protecting approach of realising the German Pavilion exclusively with used materials from last year’s Art Biennale, and with the involvement of local initiatives, demonstrates the creative potential of the current socio-ecological transition in building.’
The programme of the German Pavilion is oriented to the social practice of (restorative occupation and) maintenance and illuminates concrete challenges in this context by reference to issues of housing construction and societal inclusion in the greater Venice area. The curatorial team has committed itself to using, for the first time, the materials from the preceding Art Biennale of 2022 and is employing an all-electric ID. Buzz Cargo for the transport of tools from Leipzig to Venice.
Volkswagen is promoting the forward-looking exhibition concept in Venice in the framework of its international sponsorship of formats and platforms that make art and culture accessible to broad audiences. In this way, the company supports actors, institutions and projects in the fields of art, music and design in order to facilitate the examination of creative content and works. It thereby helps to open up new perspectives that are essential in pursuing paths of innovation and in strengthening societal understanding.
The journal ARCH+, headed by the architectural theorist and curator Anh-Linh Ngo, is one of the leading German publications that address architectural developments in their academic, societal and political dimensions. The activities of ARCH+ range well beyond its quarterly magazine to also encompass the conception and realisation of exhibitions, discussion formats and innovation workshops on urban development and architectural theory and practice, which are financed by the nonprofit ARCH+ GmbH.
The 18th Venice Architecture Biennale is taking place under the artistic direction of the Ghanaian-Scottish architect and author Lesley Lokko. The participating countries will open their pavilions to the public from 20 May to 26 November 2023 under the Biennale motto ‘The Laboratory of the Future’. A complementary cultural programme put on by the Goethe-Institut is to accompany the exhibition. Details on the offerings of the German Pavilion are available here: www.openformaintenance.net