Yassine Salihine to curate the Dutch Pavilion at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale
Nieuwe Instituut, the national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture in the Netherlands, announces the appointment of Yassine Salihine as curator of the Dutch Pavilion at the 20th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, taking place from 8 May to 21 November 2027.
4 November 2026
Influenced by popular culture, his Moroccan heritage, Dutch upbringing and a career in journalism and design, Salihine’s curatorial practice explores how design and architecture shape ideas of collective identities, personal histories and belonging. As Head Curator at Design Museum Den Bosch (NL) since 2023, he has explored these interests through exhibitions, such as Dance – Design of a Culture and From Bauhaus to Mecca, which surveyed the work of German architect Dr Mahmoud Bodo Rasch. Prior to this he spent more than a decade as a journalist for major Dutch news outlets and led his own agency, Salihine Design.
Assigned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), the Nieuwe Instituut, under the direction of Yesomi Umolu, is responsible for commissioning the Dutch contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale. The presentation is held at the Dutch Pavilion in the Giardini, designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1954.
Salihine’s interdisciplinary perspective reflects the expansive and interconnected nature of design thinking in our era of rapid social, technological and ecological change. His vision reflects the Nieuwe Instituut’s commitment to explore the transformative power of architecture, design and digital culture in a world where complex cultural and spatial challenges are closely intertwined. We look forward to the unique contribution he will make to this conversation in the context of the Dutch Pavilion and the biennale at large.
I’m honoured to serve as curator of the Dutch Pavilion at la Biennale di Venezia 2027 – a meeting of many nationalities that offers a fitting platform from which to question the formation and fluidity of identity in relation to architecture. I’m interested in the meanings we assign to the objects and interiors we surround ourselves with, and how these change over time as we do as individuals. Through the pavilion exhibition, I hope to explore how our relationships with the spaces and things around us reflect broader questions of identity and belonging.
The Dutch contribution will be presented in the context of la Biennale di Venezia’s 2027 theme Do Architecture – For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality, curated by architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, whose emphasis on architecture rooted in real places and communities resonates with Salihine’s exploration of how design intersects with lived experience, memory and material realities.
Further details, including the pavilion’s title, full curatorial concept, collaborators, and exhibitors, will be announced in 2027.
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Commissioner
Nieuwe Instituut
Curator
Yassine Salihine
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.
About Yassine Salihine
Yassine Salihine is the Head Curator at Design Museum Den Bosch in the Netherlands. He previously worked for thirteen years as a journalist for various Dutch media organisations, as a designer through his own consultancy, Salihine Design, and as a lecturer at KABK, Design Academy Eindhoven and Willem de Kooning Academy. His interests are also explored in his podcast Design of the Times, produced for Designplatform Rotterdam, and his forthcoming book Tracksuit: The Suit of the People, published by Thames & Hudson.
About Nieuwe Instituut
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.
About Yesomi Umolu
Yesomi Umolu is the General and Artistic Director of the Nieuwe Instituut. Newly appointed in March of 2026, Umolu brings extensive knowledge of contemporary art, architecture, and digital culture, alongside significant experience in artistic leadership across international cultural institutions. Before joining the Nieuwe Instituut, she served as Director of Curatorial Affairs and Public Practice at Serpentine in London, where she oversaw artistic programming and the curatorial team. She was previously the Artistic Director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial – the largest architecture and design exhibition in North America. Umolu has served as a trustee of the Graham Foundation in Chicago and on the curatorial advisory board for the US Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale.