Spain pavilion in Venice was featured for the 2023 Biennale Architettura, with an interesting theme that follows in the footsteps of other exhibitions such as Countryside. A journey of exploration through the architectures that feed us, from the domestic laboratories of our kitchens to the vast operational landscapes that nourish our cities.

FOODSCAPES, "By eating, we digest territories", curated by Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa and Manuel Ocaña, will present an exhibition in the Spanish pavilion of the Giardini that explores the Spanish agro-architectural context, the food engine of Europe. In the current situation where energy debates are prioritized, those that focus on food remain in the background. The concept studies the way in which it is produced, distributed and consumed.

After analyzing food systems and the architectures that build them, FOODSCAPES looks to the future to explore other possible models, capable of feeding the world without devouring the planet.
At a time when debates about energy are more pertinent than ever, food remains in the background, yet the way we produce, distribute and consume it mobilises our societies, shapes our metropolises and transforms our geographies more radically than any other energy source. After analysing our food systems and the architectures that build them, FOODSCAPES looks to the future to explore other possible models; ones capable of feeding the world without devouring the planet.

The exhibition consists of three main elements: an audiovisual project of five short films; an archive in the form of a recipe book; and a public programme of conversations, debates, events and collective research to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing between architects with transdisciplinary profiles from various Spanish universities and pavilion audiences.
 
At a time when debates about energy are more pertinent than ever, food remains in the background, yet the way we produce, distribute and consume it mobilises our societies, shapes our metropolises and transforms our geographies more radically than any other energy source. After analysing our food systems and the architectures that build them, FOODSCAPES looks to the future to explore other possible models; ones capable of feeding the world without devouring the planet.
Curator of the FOODSCAPES exhibition Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa.


Biomethanization Plant, Pinto. Photograph by Pedro Pegenaute.

Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation has been directly responsible for coordinating the country’s exhibitions in the Spanish Pavilion. Spain’s Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA), through the Directorate General for the Urban Agenda and Architecture, announced the open call, with the intervention of a jury, for the selection of the curator and exhibition design of the Spanish Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

It is also organising its production through a collaboration agreement with Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), whose also has been involved in the support of contemporary creation at the Venice Biennale, both in the production of the Spanish Pavilion and in the international selection. Spain is also presenting an exhibition programme as part of the international section of the Biennale, with the support of AECID and AC/E, which this year features the work of three architecture studios: GRANDEZA Studio, Flores & Prats Architects and Office for Political Innovation.


Valle Odieta farm, Navarra. Photograph by Pedro Pegenaute.
 
"FOODSCAPES offers a real, intelligent, and innovative discourse that promotes research and promises a learning experience in which Spanish architecture and the national territory are the protagonists. Spain occupies a strategic position as a laboratory for a more sustainable future in terms of food systems and the architectures that build them, both because of the variety of its agri-food production and because of our country's exposure to the climate crisis. The project reveals a practical will to create an architecture capable of changing our view of the world.
The Jury of the open call, appointed by Spain’s Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.

FOODSCAPES will be presented in the Pavilion of Spain from 20 May to 26 November 2023 in the Giardini della Biennale at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, entitled “The Laboratory Of The Future” and curated by Lesley Lokko.


Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa and Manuel Ocaña, 2023. Photograph by FOODSCAPES.

More information

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Curatorial Team
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Collaborators
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TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, and with the support of The European Climate Foundation + Fundación Arquia.
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Commissioner
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Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (MITMA).
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
Spain’s Public Agency for Cultural Action (AC/E).
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Dates
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May 20 to November 26, 2023.
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Location
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At the 18th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. Spanish Pavilion in Giardini, Venice, Italy.
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Photography
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Pedro Pegenaute, FOODSCAPES.
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Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa is an antidisciplinary architect, curator, and researcher based in Madrid, Spain. He is Associate Professor of Projects at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid ETSAM-UPM, where he is an active member of the research group ProLab and the educational innovation group Dispositivos Aglutinadores de Proyecto.

From 2017 to 2022 he was a member of the sub-directorate team of "Architecture", the centenary magazine of the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM). Since 2021 he has been the Artistic Director of Medialab Matadero, an institutional platform managed by the Madrid City Council that brings together artists, designers, researchers, thinkers, scientists, engineers, architects, public policy makers and many other agents to collaboratively address issues of social, technological and ecological relevance. Castillo-Vinuesa was also part of the first cohort of "The Terraforming," a design-research initiative of the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design that explores the ecosystem implications of the Anthropocene for urbanism on a planetary scale.
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Manuel Ocaña. Born in Salamanca (Spain) in 1966, being transferred to in the same year to Madrid. Architect from Madrid Technical School of Architecture  (ETSAM), where he graduated in 1992, founded the practice Manuel Ocaña Architects in Madrid in 2000.

In addition to working as an architect, he has also worked as a road manager for a pop group from the 90s, as well as a steelworker, carpenter, and photographer. He has been an associate professor of architectural projects and a member of the Master Habilitation Committee at the Technical University of Madrid, where he has published books such as “Madrid Monumental: Exorcity”. He has also taught and served on juries at the European University, IE University, the School of Architecture at the University of Alicante, and PUCP in Lima, Peru. He has published his texts and projects in national and international architecture magazines. The Foundation of the Official College of Architects of Madrid has published a monograph on his work entitled "Risky Business", and the Coam-EA Cultural Foundation (Ediciones De Arquitectura) a compilation in the monograph "eXcepto 18".

Among his projects, the Santa Rita Geriatric Center in Ciudadela stands out, an assisted housing building configured on one floor with 60 rooms arranged in a clover shape that face a system of gardens, Ocaña de España, a controversial housing development with a dramatic scenography in Ocaña, Toledo, and the headquarters of Casa Mediterráneo in the former Benalúa station in Alicante (2010-2013). Ocaña also represented Spain at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.
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Published on: April 16, 2023
Cite: "FOODSCAPES, "By eating, we digest territories". Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/foodscapes-eating-we-digest-territories-spanish-pavilion-venice-architecture-biennale-2023> ISSN 1139-6415
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