The Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale’s 17th International Architecture Exhibition will present “Future School,” curated by architect Shin Hae-won, at the national pavilion and virtual platform of “Future School Online.”

The upcoming Venice Architecture Biennale will run May 22 to Nov. 21 in Venice, Italy under the theme of “How will we live together?” curated by Lebanese architect and scholar Hashim Sarkis.

The Korean Pavilion at this year’s biennale has invited architects, artists and experts on social issues to address global challenges. Titled “Future School,” the pavilion will focus on three critical subjects: climate crisis, diaspora and innovation. The Future School Online is a platform of 50 lectures and workshops on the three issues. The Korean Pavilion will also be available for viewing at the official website of the Korean Pavilion, www.korean-pavilion.or.kr.

Organized by the Venice Biennale, the International Architecture Exhibition was founded in 1980 and is biennially held in even-numbered years. Coming a year later than scheduled due to the pandemic, the 17th edition of the architecture biennale will feature 114 architects and artists from 46 countries.

“In the context of widening political divides and growing economic inequalities, we call on architects to imagine spaces in which we can generously live together … more recently rapidly changing social norms, growing political polarization, climate change and vast global inequalities are making us ask this question more urgently and at different scales than before,” Sarkis stated on the upcoming biennale.

Shin participated in the 10th edition of the biennale and was the winner of the Korea Young Architect Award in 2013, She currently heads lokaldesign, an architecture firm based in Seoul.

The opening of the biennale will be livestreamed in Seoul on May 21 at the ARKO Art Center in Jongno, central Seoul, in the presence of the curator of the Korean Pavilion.

National pavilion curators around the world launched the Curators Collective last year to discuss synergistic and expansive collaboration in the face of the pandemic. The online dialogue initiated by Shin last May led to the publication of a joint statement among the curators to commit to establishing a platform to share exhibition content to reinforce consolidation in the pandemic times.

In 2014, the Korean Pavilion won the highest award, Golden Lion award at the 14th International Architecture exhibition with the exhibition “Five Senses on the Korean Peninsula” curated by architect Cho Min-seok.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)