Staging Ideas at the Venice Architecture Biennale

The Venice Architecture Biennale remains one of the most visible stages for contemporary architectural discourse, an international platform where ideas are not only exhibited but also tested, politicized, and performed. This symposium offers a moment to reflect critically on this year’s Biennale: What did it foreground through its curatorial strategies, formats of presentation, and overall framing, and what does it reveal about the current ambitions and enduring limits of the discipline?

Moderated by Matt Shaw, whose forthcoming writings reflect on his experience as an observer, the conversation features presentations by SCI-Arc faculty Anna Neimark, William Virgil, and Liam Young, each of whom exhibited work in this year’s Biennale. The panel will consider their individual contributions in relation to the broader curatorial frameworks and institutional narratives at play. A discussion and audience Q&A will follow.

Matt Shaw is an author, editor, and columnist for Forbes and The Architect’s Newspaper. He teaches courses at SCI-Arc, Cooper Union, and the Stuart Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

Anna Neimark is Faculty at SCI-Arc and Co-Principal of First Office Architecture, a collaboration with Andrew Atwood in Los Angeles, California. In addition to recent texts published in AD, Log, and Khorein journals, First Office recently completed several residential projects in SoCal and installations at the Chicago & Venice Biennales.

William Virgil is an artist, educator, and Creative Director of the SCI-Arc Channel. He recently co-curated Traces, Oman’s first national pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Liam Young is a designer, director and BAFTA nominated producer who is described by the BBC as ‘the man designing our futures’. His visionary films and speculative world designs for the entertainment industry are both extraordinary images of tomorrow and urgent examinations of the environmental questions facing us today.