The Venice Biennale is an arts organization based in Venice and the name of the original and principal biennial exhibition the organization presents. The organization changed its name to the Biennale Foundation in 2009, while the exhibition is now called the Art Biennale to distinguish it from the organization and other exhibitions the Foundation organizes.
MVRDV is a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 1993. The name is an acronym for the founding members: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries.
Venice Biennale of Architecture also known as Mostra di Architettura di Venezia – in its original language, Italian – is an International exhibition held every other year on even years in Venice, Italy, in which architecture from nations around the world is presented. It is the architecture section under the overall Venice Biennale and was officially established in 1980, even though architecture had been a part of the Venice Art Biennale since 1968.
Lars Matthias M. Spuybroek is a Dutch architect and theorist who lives and works in Atlanta, where he is a professor of architecture.
Aaron Betsky, born 1958 in Missoula, Montana, is an American critic on art, architecture and design. He was the director of Virginia Tech's School of Architecture + Design until early 2022. Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale University, he is the author of over a dozen books, including Architecture Matters, Making It Modern, Landscrapers: Building With the Land, Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio, Queer Space, Revelatory Landscapes, and Architecture Must Burn. Internationally known as a lecturer, curator, reviewer and commentator, he writes the blog "Beyond Buildings" for Architect Magazine. Director of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale, he has also been president and Dean of the School of Architecture at Taliesin, director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (2001-2006) the Cincinnati Art Museum (2006-2014), and was founding Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995-2001). As an unlicensed architect, he worked for Frank O. Gehry & Associates and Hodgetts + Fung. In 2003, he co-curated "Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio" at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Wilhelmus "Winy" Maas is a Dutch architect, landscape architect, professor and urbanist. In 1993 together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries he set up MVRDV.
Nathalie de Vries is a Dutch architect, lecturer and urbanist. In 1993 together with Winy Maas and Jacob van Rijs she set up MVRDV.
Kas Oosterhuis (1951) is a Dutch architect, professor and co-founder of the innovation studio ONL together with visual artist Ilona Lénárd. He was a professor at Delft University of Technology from 2000 to 2016 and has been a professor at Qatar University since 2017. His office, ONL, has realized a number of innovative, contemporary architecture projects including the Salt Water Pavilion at Neeltje Jans, the Web of North Holland at the 2002 World Expo in Haarlemmermeer, the A2 Cockpit in the Sounder Barrier at Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht and the Liwa Tower in Abu Dhabi.
Wiel Arets is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist, industrial designer and the former Dean of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, in the United States of America. Arets was previously the 'Professor of Building Planning and Design' at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), Germany, and studied at the Technical University of Eindhoven, graduating in 1983. The same year later he founded Wiel Arets Architects, a multidisciplinary architecture and design studio, today with studios in Amsterdam, Maastricht, Munich, and Zürich. From 1995-2002 he was the Dean of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, where he introduced the idea of 'progressive-research' and co-founded the school's architectural journal named HUNCH.
Vicky Richardson is a writer, curator and consultant specialising in architecture and design. In 2014 she was nominated as one of Debrett’s 500, as one of 20 most influential people in British architecture; and in 2015 she was named a 'Woman of the Year', and received an Honorary Fellowship from the RIBA.
Xurban collective was an international art collective founded in 2000. Core members of the group are Guven Incirlioglu and Hakan Topal, whose transatlantic collaborations took the form of media projects and installations. xurban_collective's projects instigate the questioning, examination, and discussion of contemporary politics, theory, and ideology, utilizing documentary photography, video, new media and text. The collective focuses specifically on areas of regional conflicts, military spatial confinement, urban segregation and neoliberal exclusion strategies. In September 2012 xurban_collective members concluded their collaboration to focus on their personal projects, artistic research and production.
Hakan Topal is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He was the co-founder with Guven Incirlioglu of xurban collective (2000–12), and is known for his research-based conceptual art practice. He is an Associate Professor of New Media and Art+Design at Purchase College, SUNY.
Gilbert Hage is a Lebanese photographer. He studied at the Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik and teaches there since 1990. He also teaches at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts ALBA. He sometimes collaborates with curator and researcher Ghada Waked, his wife, and is co-publisher and co-editor, with Jalal Toufic, of Underexposed Books.
Miguel Robles-Durán is an urbanist, Associate Professor of Urbanism (tenured) at The New School / Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, and co-founder of the non-profit Cohabitation Strategies, a cooperative for socio-spatial research, design and development based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and New York City, USA.
Bik Van Der Pol. is the artists duo Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol, who work together since 1994 as conceptual artists and installation artists.
Space Group is an architecture office established in 1999 in Oslo, Norway and created by Gary Bates and Gro Bonesmo. Prior to founding Space Group, they worked with OMA/Rem Koolhaas, which they later on collaborated for the Vestbanen project in Oslo.
Ar. Sarly Adre Sarkum is an architecture futurist, sustainability proponent and design activist. Currently he helms the hybrid architectural design firm SA or Sarly Adre Sarkum Architecture Sdn. Bhd. He is the Immediate Past President of the Malaysia Green Building Confederation which is Malaysia's Green Building Council under the auspices of the World Green Building Council. He is also currently an elected council member of Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia. He was one of the five directors of the GBI Green Rating Tool and served as GBI Accreditation Panel as well.
Machiel Spaan is a Dutch architect and educator.
The Korean pavilion houses South Korea's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
The Nordic pavilion houses the national representation of the Nordic countries Sweden, Norway, and Finland during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
