Press release
Hy-Brasil – Ireland’s Representation at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale
From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Published on
Last updated on
Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, today (Thursday 4 May) launched Ireland’s Representation at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023 at the Royal Irish Academy. The exhibition is curated by a team of five architects, selected to represent Ireland on the basis of an open call - Peter Carroll, Peter Cody, Elizabeth Hatz, Mary Laheen and Joseph Mackey. Ireland at Venice is an initiative of Culture Ireland in partnership with the Arts Council.
Responding to the theme, The Laboratory of the Future - selected by curator of the Biennale Architettura 2023, Lesley Lokko, the Irish Pavilion entitled In Search of Hy-Brasil will present fieldwork from Ireland’s remote islands, investigating their diverse cultures, communities, and experiences. In Search of Hy-Brasil is supported by Culture Ireland, through the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
Utilising large slabs of local limestone from the offshore islands of Inis Meáin (Inishmaan), UNESCO World Heritage site Sceilg Mhichíl (Skellig Michael) and Cliara (Clare Island), In Search of Hy-Brasil will offer an immersive experience that draws connections between the social fabric, cultural landscape and ecology of these islands, shifting between the global and the local, the territorial and the intimate. The installation will also make use of local materials that highlight the traditional heritage of each island; for example sea sacks woven from discarded fishers’ rope, a linen tapestry mapping Ireland’s maritime zone and an abstraction of Sceilg Mhichíl made from Galway sheep’s wool.
Minister Martin said:
“In Search of Hy-Brasil examines the relationship between the islands of Ireland and their natural environment. It is very exciting to see how our adaptability to harsh conditions over the centuries can show us the way to more sustainable living today. In the era of global warming and the challenges of climate change, it is a theme that resonates globally.
“Ireland's national pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale will place the Irish language and the diverse communities, culture and experiences of the islands at the centre of the discourse surrounding our shared future."
Ireland at Venice 2023 will build on Ireland’s strong presence at the International Architecture Exhibition of La biennale di Venezia. In recent years the Biennale Architettura 2018 was curated by Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Architects. This year, the 2023 edition, sees the involvement of Emmett Scanlon, Alice Clancy and Laurence Lord on Curator Lesley Lokko’s curatorial team.
The installation In Search of Hy-Brasil will have a focus on renewable energy, ethical food production and biodiversity, capturing the islands’ sustainable methods of livelihood through drawing, models, film, sound, writing and language, to raise awareness of the islanders’ management of resources and their balancing of the delicate equilibrium between culture and nature.
Following its presentation in Venice, In Search of Hy-Brasil will tour Ireland in 2024.
Recreating elements of the installation on the islands, the curatorial team will seek to create an enriched narrative, bringing voices from peripheral locations into mainstream conversations around our global future. The curators of the installation will publish a book of essays and contribute to a film documentary.
More information on the Pavilion and curators can be found at: www.hy-brasil.ie.
The Venice Architecture Biennale, which will run from 20 May to 26 November 2023, 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 architects to engage with international audiences. Ireland at Venice 2023 will build on Ireland’s strong presence at the Venice Architecture Biennale in recent years with Annex’s ‘Entanglement’ and ‘Free Market’ gaining global acclaim in 2021 and 2018 respectively. The 16th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018 was curated by Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Architects.
Culture Ireland is also supporting the project of BothAnd Group, which is participating in Curator’s Special Projects at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko. Also supported by Culture Ireland, a project by architect Miriam Dunne will be featured in Time Space Existence, running in Venice at the same time as the Biennale this year.
The five curators have studied the island landscapes of Inis Meáin (Inishmaan), UNESCO World Heritage site Sceilg Mhichíl (Skellig Michael) and Cliara (Clare Island) through drawing, survey, film, sound, model, mapping, and story. The installation will offer an immersive experience that draws connections between the social fabric, cultural landscape and ecology of these islands, shifting between the global and the local, the territorial and the intimate.
According to the curators, “Large limestone slabs of three of the islands - Inis Meáin, Sceilg Mhichíl and Cliara and their related ocean floor - will be on display, alongside a range of hands-on tactile displays, which celebrate the use of local materials in innovative and unorthodox ways.
These include:
Peter Carroll BArch MRIAI. Graduated from University College Dublin in 1995. He worked in the studios of O’Donnell + Tuomey in Dublin and Rafael Moneo in Madrid before establishing A2 Architects in 2005. He is Director of A2 Architects and Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture University of Limerick since 2007. Peter is currently running the third year studio in SAUL focussing on Clare Island and its ongoing relationship to the Praeger and Feehan surveys.
Peter Cody PhD MScAAD DipArch BScArch MRIAI. Graduated from the Dublin Institute of Technology in 1990, completed a master’s degree in architecture at Columbia University, New York in 1996 and a PhD at RMIT University, Melbourne in 2018. He worked in the studio of and Alvaro Siza in Porto before establishing Boyd Cody Architects in 2000. He is currently a Director of Boyd Cody Architects and assistant professor at University College Dublin. He exhibited an interpretation of the work of Eileen Gray at the Venice Biennale 2018 and previously exhibited at the Biennale in 2012 and 2006 with a focus on the depleted bog-lands of the Irish Midlands. He was Co-Curator of ‘Line to Surface’ at the Inaugural Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2007 with Peter Carroll.
Elizabeth Hatz is a practicing architect, AA Diploma/SAR/MSA , associate professor and art curator. She shares her time between office, research, consultation, art work and teaching, as former professor at KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm and presently at SAUL School of Architecture, University of Limerick, Ireland. She has designed several major buildings such as Kodak Head Quarters and laboratories outside Gothenburg, the ground buildings of Stockholm Globe Arena and laboratories for Nobel Industries/AKSO-Nobel in Stockholm. Since 1992 she runs her own practice in Stockholm. In the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, Elizabeth Hatz was represented in the Central Pavilion, with her own show: Line, Light, Locus.
Hatz curated ev+a 2010 (exhibition of visual arts), entitled “Matters”, Ireland's pre-eminent art event, with 59 artists from 14 countries in 11 different venues; reviewed in Irish Times by Aidan Dunne April 2010. Her writings are published in Sweden, UK, Switzerland, Italy and Ireland. Online she is published at Drawing Matter UK: and At University of Kingston in Register Podcasts 2017. Writings include essays on Peter Märkli, Hugh Strange, Hammershøj, Grafton Architects and others.
Mary Laheen BArch, MUBC, FRIAI graduated from University College Dublin in 1981. She worked with de Blacam and Meagher Architects before establishing a practice in Dublin in 1995. She is the author of various publications related to cultural landscape, and represents Ireland on the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes, ICOMOS. With Aoibheann Ní Mhearáin, Architect, she exhibited ‘Landscape and Lens’ interpreting the work of Jean Rénaudie at the Venice Biennale 2018. Mary has had a lifelong engagement with the islands of Ireland, in particular the drystone-wall field-boundary landscape of the Aran Islands. The nature-culture dynamic of the islands has informed and inspired her work in the practice and teaching of architecture.
Joseph Mackey BArch, MRIAI graduated from University College Dublin in 2010. He worked with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris, Tom de Paor in Dublin, Eric Parry Architects and Niall McLaughlin Architects in London, before establishing Joseph Mackey Architects in 2015. He is a director at Joseph Mackey Architects and a senior lecturer at Cork Centre for Architectural Education. Joseph’s work has been exhibited at RIBA gallery in London 2010 and the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2022.
Hy-Brasil is Commissioned by Culture Ireland, and supported by: