Vinciane Despret, curator of "In Vivo" presented at the Venice Biennale


The Belgian Pavilion at the 18th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition is presenting the "In Vivo" project, which focuses on exploring the architect's new relationship with resources.

The Bento collective and Vinciane Despret, philosopher and psychologist, associate professor at ULiège, are the curators of this installation, which questions our extractivist production system by identifying and developing building alternatives using materials derived from living organisms and the imagination that accompanies them.

Juliette Salme, an anthropologist at the University of Liège, has joined the project development team and is interested in the sensitive dimension of biomaterial development and the relationship between humans and non-humans.

The 'In Vivo' installation is a large-scale experiment with natural and living materials, including raw earth and mycelium (the vegetative part of fungi), while the Pavilion catalogue explores our future condition in the light of this little-known universe.

In the central room, the curators use natural, living materials, experimenting with panels of mycelium (the vegetative part of fungi) placed in a spectacular wooden structure (12m long x 6m wide x 6m high) and resting on a raw earth floor made from excavated soil. This is an opportunity for visitors to experience the sensory characteristics of these materials, including their tactile, acoustic and poetic qualities. Mycelium, wood and earth are all sourced from the urban area of Brussels, with a view to sustainable, ultra-local sourcing.

With adjoining rooms dedicated to the process of experimentation and production of the installation created by Bento, the installation is akin to one of the "laboratories of the future" that curator Lesley Lokko has called for this 18th edition. It's a gateway to a different way of building architecture, using local resources and fostering the emergence and development of new living materials industries in Belgium and beyond.

The International Architecture Exhibition - The Venice Biennale

A major global cultural event for architecture, the Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition takes place every two years from May to November.

Curator Lesley Lokko (Ghana/Scotland, founder and director of the African Futures Institute) has chosen the concept of "Laboratory of the future" for this 18th edition. As a preamble to the Biennial, she uses a phrase that resonates particularly with the imagination developed by the young architects Bento and Vinciane Despret in "In Vivo": "More than buildings, forms, materials or structures, it is architecture's ability to change the way we see the world that is its most precious and powerful gift. We see our exhibition as a kind of workshop, a laboratory where architects and practitioners from a wide range of creative disciplines draw on examples of their contemporary practice that set out a path for the public - participants and visitors - to follow, imagining for themselves what the future might hold."

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Vinciane Despret

Photos : © Ugo Carmeni

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