Manijeh Verghese and Madeleine Kessler's British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale opens

Opening to the public on Saturday 22 May, the British Pavilion 2021 exhibition at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia is co-curated by AA alumna Madeleine Kessler and AA Head of Public Engagement Manijeh Verghese, founding directors of Unscene Architecture.

Commissioned by the British Council, The Garden of Privatised Delights invites engagement in the debate surrounding the privatisation of public space in Britain. Created by Kessler and Verghese in collaboration with five teams of architects, researchers and designers, the exhibition reimagines the rooms within the British Pavilion as a series of seven immersive installations representing archetypal privatised public spaces including pubs, playgrounds and high street shops. Through a curatorial approach grounded in participation, collaboration and the amplification of diverse voices, the exhibition proposes new ideas for the democratisation of these spaces as part of the drive to establish a more equitable society. The urgency of this endeavour has itself been emphasised throughout the course of the global pandemic, which caused the Biennale’s original scheduled opening in 2020 to be postponed.

A number of AA staff and alumni contributed to the project through the development of thematic sections within the exhibition. The Ministry of Collective Data was designed by Will Gowland and Harry Kay, both AA alumni and current tutors within Design + Make and Communication and Media Studies respectively; The Ministry of Common Land was designed by AA alumni Torange Khonsari and Andreas Lang; and Play with(out) Grounds was designed by vPPR Architects, founded by AA alumna Catherine Pease, Unit Master of Experimental 13 Jessica Reynolds and former AA tutor Tatiana von Preussen.

The Garden of Privatised Delights is open to Biennale visitors at the British Pavilion in the Venice Giardini from Saturday 22 May – Sunday 21 November 2021. To find out more, please visit: https://venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org/the-garden-of-privatised-delights