Biennale Architettura 2023: Notes by an Outsider

This article offers an outsider’s analytical travelogue of the Biennale Architettura 2023 in Venice, visited during a single autumn day near the close of the exhibition. Situating the architectural show against the more widely discussed Art Biennale, the author first frames the Architecture Biennale as a “blind spot” in Ukrainian art-historical discourse—yet one of acute practical relevance for a nation facing wartime devastation and the prospect of large-scale, future-oriented reconstruction. Adopting a deliberately impressionistic method that privileges direct sensory observation over exhaustive archival citation, the essay maps key curatorial and spatial features of the 18th edition, curated by Lesley Lokko under the motto “The Laboratory of the Future.” The narrative contrasts the concentrated geographic footprint of the architectural exhibition (Giardini & Arsenale) with the more diffusely networked Art Biennale, then highlights signature experiential motifs: the transformation of inter-pavilion space into land-art terrains, the persistence of spectacular, installation-driven practice despite the discipline’s data-heavy rhetoric, and the porous boundaries between architecture, visual art, and performative design. Particular attention is paid to national pavilions that either reinforced or subverted the Biennale’s laboratory metaphor—Brazil’s award-winning “Terra,” Ukraine’s earthwork-like “Before the Future,” and immersive constructs by France, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, and Denmark. The article closes by arguing that the Biennale ultimately reaffirms architecture’s dual identity as consumer-facing spectacle and speculative research platform, offering Ukrainian architects cautionary lessons and inspirational models for post-war rebuilding.