The Canada Council for the Arts has chosen the curatorial collective Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA) to represent Canada at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 2023, with the Not for Sale! exhibition. The pavilion, open from May 20th until November 26th, 2023, aims to draw attention and encourage dialogue on potential solutions to the challenges generated by the housing crisis in the country.
Architects Against Housing Alienation set out to transform the Canadian Pavilion in the Giardini into a campaign headquarters for eligible housing that moves beyond the concept of property and the “financialized form of architecture” that it implies. This comes in response to a wide array of issues ranging from widespread unaffordability, under-housing, precarious housing, and homelessness. The group understands this crisis and global phenomenon as being heightened in Canada, as the country’s economy is heavily reliant on speculative real estate.
The campaign to end housing alienation predates the Venice Biennale, as the AAHA collective was formed in 2021 with this purpose. For the next six months, the Canadian Pavilion in Venice will serve as a temporary headquarters, a place of gathering for the ten teams who are spearheading the campaign. The team members include activists, architects, and advocates who bring expertise and compassion to the issues of housing justice. The collaborative effort aims to create momentum and a shared focus on the ongoing work to create a new housing system.
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Lesley Lokko on the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale: "I Hope It Provokes the Audience to Think Differently and More Empathetically"It is crucial that we respond to Canada’s deep housing crisis. Together with Indigenous leaders, activists, advocates, and architects, we will create a campaign for accessible and affordable housing for all.” — Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA)
Other national pavilions have also announced their exhibition themes, with some of them also focusing on the housing crisis and the role of real estate companies. The Estonian Pavilion seeks to explore the contradiction between the living place as a home and as an exchange value in the world of real estate. On a similar note, the Bulgarian Pavilion focuses on the subject of depopulation, urban decline, and rural flight, while the Türkiye Pavilion investigates the stories and hidden potential of unused buildings. In an exclusive interview for ArchDaily, curator Lesley Lokko explains her choice for the general theme of the Biennale, Africa: Laboratory of the Future, as an invitation for both the audience and the curators to think differently, beyond the convenient stereotypes, and more emphatically.
