The National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal) announced the selected proposal that will represent Mexico at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale 2023. The selection was derived from 44 registered teams and 14 projects submitted. The selected proposal is called "Utopian Infrastructure: The peasant basketball court" and is made up of the following participants:
Rodrigo Escandón Cesarman participates as a representative of the Mexico City-based office APRDELESP, who will be in charge of architecture, urban planning, and operation. Mariana Botey will be in charge of museography and the decolonial theoretical project; Sergio Galaz will be in charge of the sociology part of the project and Antonio Turok will develop the field and documentary research. On the other hand, Sam Law will be in charge of anthropology, Fabien Capello will design the furniture, emilio + erandi will be in charge of graphic design, Radio Nopal will be in charge of radio broadcasting and finally, Mariana Botey, Salvador Amores and Pablo Escoto Luna will be in charge of cinematography.
In the open call, published on December 2nd, 2022, Mexican architects were invited to send their proposals. In this, they achieved a spatial result that is linked to the guidelines indicated by the Ghanaian-Scottish architect Lesley Lokko, appointed for this Venice Biennale as artistic director and curator of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, who proposes the theme The Laboratory of the Future.
The jury was composed of Elena Tudela, Maya Segarra, Mariana Munguía, Juan Ignacio del Cueto, and Lucina Jiménez López, general director of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal), who analyzed the proposals received. The evaluation was carried out to select a project to represent Mexico at the Architecture Biennial, based on the following considerations and premises: inclusive collective participation, cultural, technical, and material diversity, visibility of places and territories of identity, integral environmental, cultural and social design, and construction, in which the memory and history of those who inhabit them are incorporated and given value, the feasibility of production in the space destined for the Mexican Pavilion at the Venice Arsenale.
The concept is based on the scheme of a basketball court as a research laboratory, beyond the sports theme, a temporary space for socializing to play, debate, work, hang out, etc. Creativity, fun, and dialogue in a space recognized in urban and rural environments.
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