Who is We? - Dutch Contribution to the Biennale in Venice

The Venice Biennale (Italian: Biennale di Venezia) is a leading international art event that has been held in Venice every other year in the summer months from June to November since 1895. Nowadays a distinction is made in the different art disciplines: visual arts, architecture, music, theater and dance. The Art Biennale takes place in the odd years and the Architecture Biennale in even years. Due to the corona pandemic, the Biennale has been postponed to 2021.

At each Archituur Biennale, an international curator is appointed who formulates the main question on which all countries inspire their contribution. The curator of the 17th edition is Hashim Sarkis and he asks the question: 'How will we live together?' In reply he states: "We need a new spatial contract in the context of widening political divides and growing economic inequalities. We call on architects to imagine spaces in which we can generously live together.

Het Nieuwe Instituut is the commissioner of the Dutch Pavilion. With 'Who is We?' this Pavilion responds to the main question of the Biennale. In Venice and the Netherlands, 'Who is We?' offers live encounters and digital reflections from various disciplines and collaborators. Contributors architect Afaina de Jong and artist Debra Solomon deconstruct normative concepts of space such as ‘terra nullius’ and ‘tabula rasa’, visualising what remains unseen behind the dominant structures that define spaces.