Biennale Architettura
The International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia has been a prestigious, world-renowned cultural event ever since its inception in 1895.
Denmark has had its own national pavilion in the Giardini Pubblici in Venice since 1932. The Danish Pavilion consists of two buildings: Carl Brummer’s from 1932 and Peter Koch’s from 1958.
The International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia was first held in 1980, and from then on every other year, in Venice, Italy, and as the largest, most prominent architecture event in the world, it attracts approximately 300,000 visitors.
The Danish pavilion is owned by the Ministry of Culture Denmark, as the ministry responsible for Denmark’s contributions to the art and architecture Biennales in Venice, with the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces as the responsible agency.
Danish Architecture Center has been appointed by the Ministry of Culture Denmark as commissioner of the Danish Pavilion for each Biennale Architettura since 2004.
In recent years, the Danish contributions to the architecture Biennales have been created in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture Denmark, the Danish Arts Foundation Committee for Architecture and the philanthropic association Realdania, which has ensured a high architectural standard professionally and financially.
On behalf of the Ministry of Culture Denmark, a jury appoints a curator for the Danish exhibition at the Danish Pavilion during the Biennale Architettura.
The jury for the 2023 Biennale Architettura comprised representatives of the Danish Arts Foundation Committee for Architecture, the rectors of Denmark’s architecture schools, Danish Architecture Center and the philanthropic association Realdania.
The curator has the overall responsibility for Denmark’s exhibition concept, which must be within the theme chosen by Biennale Architettura’s main curator (2023: Lesley Lokko). The Danish curator collaborates with a range of professionals, including architects and artists, to create the final content of the exhibition.
In 2006, Denmark won the main award, the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, with the CO-EVOLUTION exhibition. The Danish pavilion is one of the exhibition’s most popular venues.
Why is Denmark represented?
The aim of participating is to present notable trends in Danish architecture to the Biennale Architettura’s large audience and the international press. To that end, the Danish contribution to the Biennale Architettura must showcase eminent Danish architecture at a world-class level.
Danish architecture has long enjoyed world renown for its authentic, aesthetic and artistic accomplishments, and for its enduring commitment to the sustainable development of our physical surroundings, including social aspects such as community and cohesion.
Danish architecture is not created in a national vacuum, but in a well-established discourse with global modes of practice and theory that shape the international architectural culture and its evolution. Moreover, Danish architecture embodies a critical approach to aesthetic output and its idioms, and to the societal constraints to which they are subject, both nationally and globally.
Denmark’s contribution at the Danish pavilion during the Biennale Architettura consequently also serves to promote Denmark and Danish architecture internationally.
