SIDELINED — La Biennale di Venezia 2025
Nieuwe Instituut presents SIDELINED: A Space to Rethink Togetherness, the Dutch contribution to the 19th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia, developed in collaboration with curator Amanda Pinatih and social designer Gabriel Fontana. Hosted at the Rietveld Pavilion in the Giardini in Venice, the project reimagines the sports bar to question how architecture shapes social dynamics.
How can architecture resist exclusionary social norms? How can we create spaces that nurture new ways of coexisting? SIDELINED explores these questions by presenting an alternative sports bar, continuing designer Gabriel Fontana’s investigation into social dynamics in urban spaces through the lens of sport. By subverting traditional norms and suggesting deviations, the Dutch Pavilion strives to change the rules of the game.
Sport, as both a reflection and producer of societal conventions, shapes group identities and can often be divisive, polarising and exlusionary. Fontana challenges these structures by understanding sport as an architectural system—one that regulates spaces, bodies, and behaviour—opening the playing field to inclusivity, empathy, and solidarity.
In collaboration with designer Koos Breen, artist Jeannette Slütter, curator Amanda Pinatih, and including works by a range of artists, researchers, and others, SIDELINED shows how built spaces can be hostile or welcoming, encouraging new ways of thinking about bodies, spaces, and identities.
Responding to the Biennale’s theme of Intelligens, the pavilion stages encounters that disrupt the norms of sport and its architecture, inviting visitors to engage through play and observation.
About La Biennale di Venezia
The International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia 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.
Nieuwe Instituut as commissioner
Nieuwe Instituut is the national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture. It is responsible for the Dutch entry to the International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia, having been assigned this role by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). The Dutch pavilion is also funded by the Ministry, supporting the presentation of innovative architectural practices and cultural contributions from the Netherlands.
Practical information
Location: Rietveld Pavilion, Giardini di Venezia
Dates: May 10 – November 23, 2025
Opening Hours: 11.00-19.00
Closed on Mondays
Tickets are available through the Biennale's website.
Press
For press inquiries, reach out to Keesje Helderoon (k.heldoorn@nieuweinstituut.nl) or visit the press page.
This project was made possible thanks to:
