Uruguay Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

The Ministry of Culture and Education, through the Department of Internationalization of Culture and the National Institute of Visual Arts of the National Directorate of Culture, participates together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its General Directorate for Cultural Affairs of the Embassy of Uruguay in Italy; the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism of Udelar and the Faculty of Architecture of ORT University and the support of the Agency Uruguay XXI, in the 18th edition of the International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia.
From May 20th to November 26th, 2023, the Biennale's public will have the opportunity to see the work of Uruguayan architects and artists who will present the work titled In Opera: Future Scenarios of a Young Forest Law, in the Uruguay pavilion that has been maintained at the exhibition for more than 60 years.
The proposal, selected through a public call, is based on the understanding of the Forestry Law as an under construction ecosystemic assemblage, which dialogues with diverse spatiality and territorialities and is capable of outlining possible scenarios towards a Uruguay as a laboratory of wooden futures. The proposal as a whole seeks to establish alliances between disciplines and practices such as music, visual culture and architecture.
It is a multi-author and multimedia opera that will transform the Uruguayan pavilion in Venice into a theatrical venue, where the avatar of a law that looks herself in the mirror eager to get attention, a visual pieces based on the spatiality of wood in Uruguay, musical irruptions of young Afro-Uruguayan artists, and interviews with actors who are involved in the content and a catalogue/blog to deepen the theme will be all in dialogue.
In the search for a narrative that escapes the traditional ways of communicating architecture, the opera will be complemented with other devices and formats. When passing through a curtain, different multisensory proposals will be presented in the room, ranging from the olfactory to the visual through sound. Through a non-linear experience, visitors are invited to explore and reflect on the potential of our country as a laboratory for wood future.
Meanwhile in Uruguay and as a permanent link with what will be happening in Venice during those months, workshops and talks will be organized to rethink the issue from different levels and, among other things, to rethink the way of living in Uruguay and broaden the scope of the debate and the views towards the future. The curatorial team of titled In Opera: Future Scenarios of a Young Forest Law is composed of MAPA+INST (Mauricio López, Matías Carballal, Andrés Gobba, Luciano Andrades, Silvio Lagranha and Sebastián Lambert) and Carlos Casacuberta, with the artistic participation of Exceso Colectivo (Rafaella Varela, Fol Cvetreznik and Guzmán Bergereau), Nomusa (Camila Cardozo), Sofía Colares, Viki Style, Olhosdddagua (Gabrielle Santos), Facundo Balta, Romina Sánchez.
The Biennale di Venezia was founded in 1895. It is one of the most famous and prestigious cultural institutions in the world, which holds every two years the international exhibition of architecture. The event takes place mainly at I Giardini in Venice where, in addition to the Central Pavilion where the main exhibition is presented, 29 pavilions from different countries are installed. Uruguay is one of the three Latin American countries with this privilege.
To be participating yet one more year in an event of such magnitude highlights the quality of the works produced in Uruguay and, at the same time, gives us the opportunity to rethink and explore, through architecture and art, the world in which we live.  

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