In Vivo

Venice, 2023

Exhibition for the Belgian Pavilion at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale curated by Bento and Vinciane Despret

For this edition, the Belgian representation will focus on the exploration of the architect's new relationship with resources. The curators question our system of extractivist production by identifying and developing construction alternatives using materials derived from living organisms and the imagery that accompanies them. Their installation experiments with natural, living materials, including raw earth and mycelium, the vegetative part of fungi, on a large scale. Mycelium, wood and earth all stem from the urban area of Brussels with a view to an ultra-local, sustainable supply. The structure has been designed to be specifically dismantled and its elements will be given a second life in Venice by the local company Re-Biennale, which has been appointed to assemble and dismantle the installation.

With the adjoining rooms dedicated to the process of experimentation and fabrication of the installation created by Bento, the installation is akin to one of the "laboratories of the future" that the curator Lesley Lokko has called for in this 18th edition. It is an open door to another way of creating architecture, based on local resources, which is conducive to the emergence and development of new channels for living materials in Belgium and beyond.

In collaboration with Corentin Mahieu, Juliette Salme, Corentin Mullender, Permafungi, BC Materials, Sonian Wood Coop, and the VUB.

photos: Ugo Carmeni
text: Bento, Vinciane Despret