Dutch pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di VeneziaDutch pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

Responding to ‘The Laboratory of the Future’, curator Lesley Lokko’s overarching theme for the 18th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, the Dutch contribution is entitled Plumbing the System.

The Dutch contribution is based on the elaborate, visionary drawings of architect Carlijn Kingma, in collaboration with researchers Thomas Bollen and Martijn Jeroen van der Linden. Introduced by Kingma’s ‘The waterworks of money’, which maps out the complex financial, regulatory and other systems that underpin our societies and relationships with each other and the planet, the pavilion will use water as a metaphor for the necessity of not only rethinking these systems, but also acting upon them in order to ensure more just and ecologically regenerative futures.

To illustrate the point, Jongert and Superuse Studios will attempt to permanently install a water retention system for capturing and redistributing rainwater in the pavilion itself, while presenting the documentation of their efforts to do so.

Nieuwe Instituut is collaborating with the Creative Industries Fund NL and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science on the interpretation and realisation of the Dutch pavilion.

For more information about the Dutch contribution to the Biennale Architettura 2023, see https://nieuweinstituut.nl/en/projects/biennale2023.

There will be an opening gathering for everyone involved with the Dutch pavilion on Thursday, May 18 at 2:00 PM. The press is welcome to attend. A separate invitation will follow, but registration is also possible by responding to this email. Of course, press is also welcome at any other time to visit the Dutch pavilion.

For questions and requests, please contact press officer Robin van Essel, +31 (0)6 3803 9218

Nieuwe Instituut is the Netherlands’ national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture. Based in Rotterdam, a global centre for design innovation, the institute’s mission is to embrace the power and potential of new thinking, exploring past, present and future ideas in order to imagine, test and enact a better tomorrow. Encouraging visitors of all ages to question, rethink and contribute, the institute’s exhibitions, public programmes, research, and wide-reaching national and international initiatives provide a testing ground for collaboration with leading designers, thinkers and diverse audiences, critically addressing the urgent questions of our times. 

In addition to housing the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, the institute manages the 1933 Sonneveld House, a leading example of Dutch Functionalist architecture, as part of its campus in Rotterdam’s Museumpark. 

In 2022, the Nieuwe Instituut became the world’s first Zoöp, a ground-breaking model through which all areas of the museum’s operations and programming are informed by its impact and benefit to other forms of life. The institute also serves as commissioner of the Dutch pavilion at the International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia and, in 2023, will act as the Artistic Director of the London Design Biennale (1-25 June).