Learning Resilience: The Irish Pavilion Explores the Culture of Remote Islands at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale
In Search of Hy-Brasil . Image © Peter Cody and Peter Carroll. Retrieved from archdaily.com
The National Pavilion of Ireland will present an exhibition titled “In Search of Hy-Brasil” at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The pavilion set out to explore diverse cultures, communities, and experiences of Ireland’s remote islands in the search for new ways of inhabiting the world. A team of five architects has been selected as the curators of the exhibition: Peter Carroll, Peter Cody, Elizabeth Hatz, Mary Laheen, and Joseph Mackey. The pavilion will be open to the public from May 20th to November 26th, 2023; afterward, the installation will tour Ireland in 2024, bringing voices from peripheral locations into mainstream conversations around our global future.
To develop the theme, the curatorial team studied the island landscapes of Inis Meáin (Inishmaan), Sceilg Mhicíl (Skellig Michael), and Cliara (Clare Island) through drawing, survey, film, sound, model, mapping, and story. The resulting exhibition aims to create an immersive experience, drawing on the connections between the social fabric, cultural landscape, and ecology of these islands. The installation also highlights renewable energy sources, ethical food production, and biodiversity in the context of the islands’ sustainable methods of livelihood. Large limestone slabs from the islands and their related ocean floor will be on display, alongside a series of hands-on tactile exhibits.