18th Venice Architecture Biennale
Goethe-Institut is partner of the German Pavilion's events programme

Open for maintenance - Architecture Biennale 2023 © Arch+ Summacumfemmer Büro Juliane Greb

With PERFORMING ARCHITECTURE 2023, the Goethe-Institut is a partner in the programme of events of the German Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia from 20 May to 26 November.

Open for maintenance - Logo Under the title Open for Maintenance, curated by ARCH+ / SUMMACUMFEMMER / BÜRO JULIANE GREB, the German contribution to this year's Architecture Biennale is dedicated to the themes of care, repair and maintenance. With the Performing Architecture programme, since 2014 the Goethe-Institut has been looking at the performative dimension of architecture, its intersections with choreography and the performing arts in the context of the International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. In interaction with other arts, architecture can be experienced in a new way and show its current social and political relevance.

The Goethe-Institut uses the extraordinary urban space of Venice as a stage for artistic and non-artistic debates, visions and questions thematically related to the Exhibition and the activities of the German Pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale. Since 2014, numerous internationally renowned artists have participated in the Performing Architecture programme, such as Florian Malzacher, Meg Stuart, Rimini Protokoll, Sandra Oehy, Sasha Waltz and William Forsythe.

With this year's programme, the Goethe-Institut explicitly refers to the concept of The Laboratory of the Future announced by the curator of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, Lesley Lokko and its concretization by the curatorial team of the German Pavilion entitled Open for Maintenance. With local artistic works and experimental formats, as well as talks and installations taking place in the German Pavilion, in theatre venues or in the public spaces of Venice's calli and campi, Performing Architecture 2023 aims to create new interdisciplinary areas of reflection and experience.

Further aspects of this research will be addressed through the series Performing Architecture, which will feature artistic and performative projects on topics such as inclusion, care, maintenance, repair and renewal. A key role will also be played by the „Art for UBI“ group’s focus on the work theme as explained by Marco Baravalle, Emanuele Braga, Gabriella Riccio (Institute of Radical Imagination ) and Anna Rispoli, in collaboration with Sale Docks. In the context of the Biennale, voices that otherwise tend to remain hidden will become audible and visible. Another focal point is the site-specific choreography by Alessandro Schiattarella for the Forward Dance Company in Leipzig (Lofft - das Theater) dancers with normative and non-normative physiognomies. 

For more information, please visit www.openformaintenance.net.

The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany operating worldwide. With 158 institutes in 98 countries, it promotes knowledge of the German language, encourages international cultural cooperation and conveys an up-to-date image of Germany. Through cooperation with partner institutions in numerous other locations, the Goethe-Institut has a total of approximately 1,000 contact points worldwide.


Contact:

Katrin Figge
Pressereferentin
Goethe-Institut
Hauptstadtbüro
Tel.: +49 89 15921 002
katrin.figge@goethe.de

Elisa Costa
Presse-und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Goethe-Institut Rom
Tel. +39 6 84400566
elisa.costa@goethe.de