Venice Architecture Biennale 2020: Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli to curate the Russian Pavilion

The Italian architect and urbanist Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli has been selected to curate the Russian Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Laparelli, partner of the OMA studio in Rotterdam and already a Creative Mediator during Manifesta 12 Palermo 2018, will respond to the general theme of the next Venice Architecture Biennale chosen by the curator Hashim Sarkis: “How will we live together?”. 

Laparelli will lead a new experiment into the pavilion’s spaces, turning them into an open workshop. Selected Russian architects and multidisciplinary collectives will be called to implement on-site their projects to restore the pavilion, designed in the first place in 1914 by Alexey Shchusev.  

The participants will be selected through an open call for the renovation of the building, with respect for its history and final use. They will also create a design for a temporary studio to be set inside the Pavilion where they will operate throughout the exhibition.

Titled “Open!”, the Russian exhibition will be conceived as a coral performance, where an ongoing dialogue will develop between the artisans, designers, and architects who will live and work there, and the audience, assisting live to the process of renovation. The pavilion and the indoors studio will also be the setting for a programme of cultural activities.

The 17th International Architecture Exhibition will open in Venice next May 23, 2020.