The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia opens in less than two weeks, on May 10, 2025, and will remain open to the public until November 23. On the day of the opening, the official Awards Ceremony will take place, during which a selected international jury will confer several official prizes, including the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. The recently announced jury includes South African architect, lecturer, and curator Mpho Matsipa; Italian curator Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator and Director of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York; and Swiss curator, critic, and art historian Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine in London, who will serve as President of the Jury.
The composition of the jury was approved by the Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia, following the recommendation of Carlo Ratti, curator of the 19th Exhibition, titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.The jury will present three official awards: the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, the Golden Lion for Best Participant in the exhibition Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., and the Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the same exhibition. Additionally, the jury may grant up to one Special Mention for a National Participation and up to two Special Mentions for participants in the main exhibition. The Awards Ceremony will be held in Venice on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
The jury members bring expertise spanning critical theory, curatorial innovation, and design research. Mpho Matsipa is an architectural theorist and educator, currently Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Co-Director of Spatial Justice at UCL. Her work explores post-extractivist design through African-centered methodologies and has been featured in major exhibitions worldwide. Paola Antonelli contributes a multidisciplinary approach to design, highlighting its intersections with technology, culture, and the environment. Her exhibitions and writings emphasize design's relevance to daily life and its potential to drive social and ecological change. Hans Ulrich Obrist is regarded as one of the most influential curators of contemporary art and architecture, with a career spanning over 350 exhibitions globally. A prolific author and cultural thinker, Obrist is renowned for his role in fostering dialogue across artistic disciplines and generations.
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Meet the Full List of the 65 National Pavilions at the 2025 Venice Architecture BiennaleThe Board of Directors also issued official statements explaining the motivations behind each jury member's selection:
Hans Ulrich Obrist – president – through his work, he has redefined the profound significance of the curator's role. Through exhibitions, artistic directions and publications, he has championed the duties of openness and co-participation as fundamental principles in the processes of cultural production in the contemporary world. His curiosity across all disciplines, his dialectical flair and talent as a tireless interviewer have placed him at the centre of one of the most extensive international networks of creators of art and architecture. He possesses both historical memory and a future-oriented perspective in equal measure, and will bring these gifts to bear in guiding the jury to formulate its judgment on the works of the participants in the Exhibition.
Paola Antonelli, the Italian curator and Director of the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA in New York, brings into play a deep understanding of the connections between design, technology and society. She has achieved international recognition as a key figure in exploring and defining the new frontiers of design, conceived within an absolutely multidisciplinary framework. The ability of her work to address important social and environmental issues, while speaking a language that is accessible to a wider non-specialist public, resonates closely with the vocation of the Biennale Architettura 2025.
Mpho Matsipa, an architect, teacher and curator, was selected to be a member of the jury for her capacity to bring together critical research and the practice of design, exploring the complexity of contemporary urbanism in the African and global contexts. Matsipa earned her Ph.D in Architecture at University of California UC Berkeley and was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She has taught and practiced professionally in the United States, South Africa, Germany, and the United Kingdom. She brings a unique perspective to the impact of cultural and political dynamics on architecture, with special attention to urban transformations in South Africa, Ghana and other countries of the African continent, exploring the potential of cities to be spaces of inclusion and innovation, based on the concept of "spatial justice".
This year, American philosopher Donna Haraway and the late Italian architect and designer Italo Rota (1953–2024) are the recipients of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and the Special Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Memoriam, respectively. The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale is expected to be one of the largest in its history, with 750 participants announced in February, including individuals and organizations forming interdisciplinary, multigenerational teams. The event will feature 65 National Pavilions, with four countries participating for the first time: the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, and Togo. As part of this edition, ArchDaily will present its first-ever exhibition within the seventh edition of Time Space Existence, organized by the European Cultural Centre (ECC).
Editor's Note: The information displayed is officially provided by the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
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