Italian
The Holy See’s pavilion at the nineteenth Biennale Architecture Exhibition in Venice is set up in the Complex of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice and is managed by the Dicastery for Culture and Education. Entitled “Open Work”, the project is curated by Marina Otero Verzier and Giovanna Zabotti, in collaboration with the architecture studios Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and Maio Architects. The pavilion, conceived as an “open construction site”, combines architectural regeneration and social repair, drawing inspiration from the Encyclical Laudato si’. During the seven months of opening – from May 10 to November 23, 2025 – it will welcome architects, artisans, and students in a collaborative and experimental process. The existing structure will be enhanced in its imperfections as a space for transformation and memory. The initiative aims to promote a sustainable and relational architecture, focusing on care, inclusion, and urban regeneration. It will also be a laboratory of collective intelligence and intergenerational exchange. “Open Work” aims to be a concrete sign of hope and social justice, revaluing what is fragile and forgotten.
A collaborative space. “The Pavilion of the Holy See will be a pavilion – a parable – explains His Eminence Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça. The title “Open Work” presents it as a construction site, as an ongoing process to which everyone is invited to collaborate. While repairing the walls and architectural details of the building, we will also repair neighborhood relationships and intergenerational hospitality, simultaneously rebuilding both the physical and social space. Our desire is that this parable-pavilion can give concrete expression, in the field of architecture, to the prophetic insights contained in the Encyclical Laudato Si’ and become an active laboratory of human and community intelligence, bringing together reason and affection, professionalism and conviviality, research and ordinary life.”
New possibilities. Curator Marina Otero Verzier recounts: “Open Work is a collaborative process that involves an international team and local collectives. Together, we reclaim repair as a creative and radical practice that transcends architectural form to nurture communities, ecosystems, and the fragile connections between them. By revitalizing an existing structure, we value its cracks and leaks not as defects to hide, but as openings to new possibilities. These thresholds invite us to reimagine the relationship between past and future, growth and decay, rupture and regeneration. Open Work honors the layered stories embedded in the place, while creating space for those who will come after us.”
Caring for the environment. “We see this opportunity as a way to position architecture as an act of care – explains Tatiana Bilbao Estudio – to recognize the urgency of caring for the environment and communities in these uncertain times, and to instill a renewed sense of purpose in our profession.” Following the same path, MAIO Architects continues, “Our work explores spatial systems designed to evolve over time, promoting care, collaboration, and interdependence among individuals and diverse communities. Opera Aperta takes this vision to its fullest expression, serving as an experimental laboratory where new ways of inhabiting and relating to architecture take shape.”
This repair process unfolds on multiple levels, involving different groups and heterogeneous forms of work to create a dynamic space collectively managed, thanks to the interventions of local artisans working alongside people eager to learn and preserve ancient knowledge, ensuring that their expertise remains active.
Meeting Place. According to curator Giovanna Zabotti, “In a world where fractures and divisions seem to be amplified, ‘Opera Aperta’ is proposed as an act of ‘repair’ and community intelligence. For Venice and its inhabitants, residents, and citizens from all over the world who visit and live there, it represents an important opportunity. This Pavilion will not only be a physical space, but a meeting place where music becomes a universal language capable of uniting people beyond cultural barriers. Every ‘repair’ is an act of social justice, because it restores value to what has been neglected, offering a second chance not only to buildings but also to the people who inhabit them”.
Education and study. The International University of Art will conduct a series of restoration and redevelopment workshops two afternoons a week, ensuring that traditional construction techniques are passed on to new generations. Participants will receive an UIA diploma, reinforcing a long-term commitment to the preservation of these skills. All this in collaboration with Lares, which will carry out the restoration work on the monumental part that will be visible to the public from Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to 18:00.
For information: https://www.dce.va/en/events/2025/venice-architecture-biennale-2025.html
Colophon:
Vatican Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2025
Complex of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, Fondamenta S. Gioacchin, 450
Title: Open Work
