The Canadian participation, officially represented by UNCEDED: Voices of the Land is, by exception this year, presented in the exhibition space at the Arsenale rather than in the Canada pavilion.
All life should be held sacred and protected. Through their roots and values, indigenous architects and planners take responsibility in living in harmony with our host, this amazing blue planet.
UNCEDED provides the international community of how our language, culture, and ceremonies are in communion with nature and are all based on natural law. Through the cycles of the moon and the sun, our mothers were deeply connected to Mother Earth and devoted their lives to teaching that the soft power of love is greater than the hard power of force. These very teachings are paramount to the future of our people and the future of humanity. Indigenous people have never surrendered. They remain UNCEDED people on UNCEDED land. Our spiritual identity is as stewards of the land; we present how architecture can be created in the interest of our future seven generations and the human family.
In the Giardini, the Canada Pavilion, restored to its original 1957 design, is being unveiled and its architectural history explored in Canada Builds/Rebuilds a Pavilion in Venice. To celebrate this 60th anniversary of the Canada pavilion, as well as its state-of-the-art restoration, the building is, itself, the subject of the exhibition. The four thematic sections include: the history of the Canada pavilion’s commission; its design by Italian firm studio architetti BBPR (Banfi, Belgiojoso, Peressutti, Rogers); the life of the pavilion as an exhibition space for art and architecture; and the pavilion’s restoration project led by the National Gallery of Canada, in close collaboration with the heir to BBPR, Alberico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, La Biennale di Venezia, and the Venice Superintendent for Architectural Heritage. Under the leadership of La Biennale di Venezia, Canadian landscape architect and Order of Canada recipient, Cornelia Hanh Oberlander, and Bryce Gautier, have closely worked with the Venice Superintendent for Architectural Heritage on the redesign and replanting of the landscape surrounding the Canada pavilion.