Nieuwe Instituut presents Sidelined at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di VeneziaNieuwe Instituut presents Sidelined at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

Nieuwe Instituut, the national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture in the Netherlands, presents an exhibition conceived by curator Amanda Pinatih, Curator of Design & Contemporary Art at the Stedelijk Museum, and social designer Gabriel Fontana, at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

Sport – in all its forms – operates as both a reflection and producer of societal conventions, including those related to gender, identity and group dynamics. It is where collective identities are formed and reinforced and, while the aim is togetherness, the result can be divisive, polarising and exclusionary. Fontana’s work challenges existing structures and assumptions by understanding sport as an architectural system—in the ways it regulates spaces, bodies and behaviour––opening the playing field to inclusivity, empathy and solidarity.

“As commissioner, Nieuwe Instituut is excited to present SIDELINED; a project that offers new imaginaries for a more inclusive world through a medium everyone can relate to: sport. The talented team behind this installation shows us that nothing need be taken for granted; we can continue to confront our challenges with playfulness and optimism.”

– Aric Chen, General and Artistic Director of the Nieuwe Instituut

In the pavilion, Fontana’s Multiform and Fluid Field projects – alternative team sports that literally redraw the rules and spaces of conventional games – reimagine sports as a means to a more inclusive, pluralistic and imaginative future. They extend his exploration from the playing field to architecture to examine how built spaces can be hostile or hospitable.

Implementing queering theories and methodologies in the transformation of the iconic space of the sports bar, the pavilion engenders new ways of thinking about the orientations of and between bodies, spaces, and identities.

In the space, designed by Koos Breen and Jeannette Slütter, visitors are encouraged to participate by playing a game or watching others play, and to observe how their relationship to familiar spaces of architecture might shift.

Responding to the Biennale’s theme of Intelligens, and also including works and texts by a range of artists, researchers and others, the pavilion seeks to suggest a future for architecture that is inclusive, multiple, and imaginative, forming new modes of togetherness.

Media Contacts
For further information and interviews about the Pavilion of the Netherlands at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, please contact ING Media:
Lauren Teague | lauren.teague@ing-media.com | + 44 (0) 789 446 2340
Caz Facey | caz.facey@ing-media.com | +44 (0) 77 5344 7360

For more information about the Nieuwe Instituut, please contact:
Robin van Essel | r.vanessel@nieuweinstituut.nl | +31 (0) 638 039 218

Title of the exhibition
SIDELINED

Commissioner
Nieuwe Instituut

Curator
Amanda Pinatih

Communications
ING Media

Exhibitors
Gabriel Fontana (main exhibitor) Alice Wong Luca Soudant

Scenography and Graphic Design
Koos Breen Jeannette Slütter

Supporters
The exhibition is financially supported by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and Embassy and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Nieuwe Instituut is the Netherlands’ national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture, located in Rotterdam’s Museumpark. Through exhibitions, events, research and other national and international initiatives, we show how design ideas contribute positively to urgent societal and ecological challenges. We don’t just want to imagine a better future, we want to test it and put it into practice. Nieuwe Instituut is a hospitable and lively place, where various designers, thinkers and the public meet. Multivocality is also the foundation of the Zoöp, our organisational model in which non-human life has a voice. Nieuwe Instituut is also responsible for the management, conservation and accessibility of the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, one of the largest architectural collections in the world, and the Sonneveld House Museum, an icon of Dutch functionalist architecture dating from 1933.

Made Ngurah Amanda Pinatih is an art historian and curator. As Curator Design & Contemporary Art at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam she brings new perspectives to the museum’s vast design collection. Her experimental working method is driven by an interest in developing new formats for knowledge transfer and exploring new ways in which historical collections can engage young and future generations. Pinatih’s exhibitions and projects explore the intersections of social, political, decolonial, environmental, and economic issues. Recent exhibitions are: Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art and Formafantasma/Oltre Terra.

Gabriel Fontana is an independent designer known for his unique approach to social design, focusing on reshaping society by creating new sports games tailored for today's world. The goal of his methods is to give people a playful way of experiencing what the prevailing norms of identity, community and inclusion really mean, and how we can bring about change. He uses sport as a metaphor of society, where the idea of playing ‘against each other’ is usually the norm. In this context, Gabriel develops alternative team sports games that deconstruct group dynamics and promote empathy.

His work has received international acclaim within the realms of education, culture, and the sports industry. His games have been played in schools across Europe, and presented at Paris Olympic Games 2024, at Nike World Headquarters (US) and in renowned museums such as MoMA (US), Nieuwe Instituut (NL) and Taiwan Design Museum (TW).

Koos Breen is an interdisciplinary designer, art director, curator, and artist based in The Hague (NL). Trained as a graphic designer at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, his work now ranges from coins to carpets, from books to shoes, and from tables to spatial installations.

Jeannette Slütter is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is informed by a deep engagement with space, architecture, and the systems that underpin them. Slütter experiments with exhibition formats and environments, exploring themes related to artistry and spatial dynamics.

The International Architecture Exhibition has been organised in Venice since 1980. It alternates with the International Art Exhibition, which was established in 1895. La Biennale di Venezia has developed into the most esteemed international arena for showcasing architecture, with 285,000 visitors in the last edition, in 2023. In 2025, the exhibition will open to the public on Saturday 10 May and remain open for six months until Sunday 23 November 2025.