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Press release

Launch of Ireland’s Representation at the 2025 Venice Biennale

The Minister for Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan, today (Thursday 27 March) launched Ireland’s Representation at the 19th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia at the Irish Architectural Archive. Curators Cotter & Naessens Architects have been selected to represent Ireland at the prestigious event. The department, through Culture Ireland, commissions Ireland’s representation in Venice in partnership with the Arts Council.

The Venice Architecture Biennale, which will run from 10 May to 23 November 2025, remains the most important global platform for the exhibition of architecture involving the public, members of civil society, individuals and institutions. It offers a unique opportunity for Irish architectural practitioners to engage with international audiences.

Responding to this year’s theme, ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.’, selected by curator of the Biennale, Carlo Ratti, Cotter & Naessens present Assembly. Inspired by the innovative political model of the Citizens’ Assembly, the design will be a multi-sensory installation that offers visitors a soundscape to be inhabited and a space to be heard.

Minister O’Donovan said:

"I want to congratulate Cotter & Naessens it is a phenomenal achievement to be selected to represent Ireland at Venice Architecture Biennale, a place where the world’s leading artists and architects will present work. This is an opportunity to showcase the vibrant and creative nature of contemporary Irish architecture to an international audience. My department, through Culture Ireland, commissions Ireland at Venice in partnership with the Arts Council, and it is a wonderful moment to celebrate the exceptional quality of Irish arts on a global stage. I’m wishing everyone involved the very best of luck at the Biennale this year.”

Assembly builds on the strong presence Ireland has had at the Biennale Architettura in recent years with the exhibitions In Search of Hy-Brasil (2023), Entanglement (2021) and Free Market (2018). Cotter & Naessens Architects are an architecture and design studio based in Cork City since 2001 and founded by Louise Cotter and David Naessens.

Following its presentation in Venice, Assembly will tour nationally through 2026. A film documenting the making of Assembly, which has been directed by Michelle Delea, shot by Felix Castaldo, with sound by David Stalling, will form an important part of the national tour.

The project’s curators discussed their chosen theme:

“To assemble is to gather together as a group of people with a common interest. To assemble is to construct a whole from constituent parts. As both congregation and construction, assembly is at the heart of the architectural process.”

Notes

Ireland at Venice is an initiative of Culture Ireland in partnership with the Arts Council. The selection of the team to represent Ireland was made following an open, competitive process, with international jury members. Assembly builds on the strong presence Ireland has had at the Biennale Architettura in recent years with the exhibitions In Search of Hy-Brasil (2023), Entanglement (2021) and Free Market (2018).

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Biographies

Cotter & Naessens Architects are an architecture and design studio based in Cork City since 2001 and founded by Louise Cotter and David Naessens. Their work is focused on public projects and is informed by design research, through teaching and design competitions, notably dlrLexicon in Dun Laoghaire and most recently the FOCAS Research Institute, Technical University Dublin. Cotter & Naessens were one of 16 practices invited to participate in Close Encounters, which was a commission for the Biennale Architettura 2018 Freespace, curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. Louise Cotter and David Naessens also participated in one of the first International Architecture Exhibtion of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Aldo Rossi in 1985. The work of the practice has been nominated twice for the EU Mies Award and in 2016 dlrLexicon received the RIBA Award for International Excellence, and the RIAI Awards for Best Public Building and Best Cultural Building in 2015.

Michelle Delea is a multidisciplinary artist engaged in architecture, poetry, filmmaking and event promotion. She holds an MA in Architecture from Cork Centre for Architectural Education, UCC and currently works between practice and education. Her writing has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Type.ie, and Architecture Ireland. She produced the documentary film The Sprawling Octopus of an Elevated Highway (2022), regarding architectural activism in 1960s Cork.

Alan Meredith graduated from UCD School of Architecture in 2015. His work is primarily interested in revealing the inherent properties of wood, with making seen as a reflective journey. His projects include one-of-a-kind furniture, public space design, and a collection of sculptural wood-turned vessels. Alan won The Golden Fleece - Special Award 2023 and had his first solo exhibition in Ireland, Quercu, at Lavit Gallery, Cork in 2024. His work is stocked in numerous galleries and regularly presented at prestigious fairs in Europe and the United States.

Luke Naessens is a curator and art historian. He received a PhD in art history from Princeton University in 2024 and is the 2024–25 Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for American Art at the Courtauld Institute. He previously worked as a member of the curatorial team at the Barbican Centre in London.

David Stalling is a composer, sound artist, improviser and audio producer whose practice transcends the traditional definition of composing. He works with various media: acoustic and electronic sound; field recordings, moving image, lighting, and scientific data. Current and recent projects include Earth Traces (2023–24), at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Cambridge; all these worlds (2022–23), at the Museum of Literature Ireland, Dublin; and Under the Feet of Shadows (2024), a multimedia installation by EL Putnam and Mike McCormack. Stalling is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre Ireland and his work is published with Farpoint Recordings.

Assembly is commissioned by Culture Ireland in partnership with the Arts Council Ireland with principal sponsorship from Dublin City Council for Ireland at Venice 2025.

To date, support and funding partners include:

  • Culture Ireland
  • Arts Council of Ireland
  • Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
  • Dublin City Council
  • Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland
  • Dublin City Council
  • Cork City Council
  • Cork County Council
  • Laois County Council
  • Creative Ireland
  • Jacobs Engineering
  • United Hardware
  • technical support from Ceadogán Rugs, Punch Consulting Engineers, iGuzzini, Innosonix

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