May 7–11, 2025
TBA21–Academy’s public program during the vernissage week of the Venice Architecture Biennale.
How can art, sound, architecture, and community come together to imagine new futures for our oceans and planet? During the opening week of the Venice Architecture Biennale, Ocean Space invites you to explore this question through a multidisciplinary public program featuring over 20 international artists and creators, including Tessa Mars, Nadia Huggins, Hannah Catherine Jones, Kelman Duran, Vivian Caccuri, and Thiago Lanis. Developed in collaboration with more than 15 leading institutions—among them The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), Storefront for Art and Architecture, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, New European Bauhaus, AEON Collective, Fondazione Ratti, CultTech Association, and major architecture awards such as the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Holcim Foundation, and EUmies Awards—the program offers a vibrant space for dialogue and imagination. Anchored by the exhibition otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua, it unfolds through performances, talks, listening sessions, and gatherings—free and open to the public—inviting audiences to reimagine the Ocean as a site of creativity, resistance, and collective transformation.
The public program at Ocean Space draws inspiration from the aesthetic strategies developed by curator Yina Jiménez Suriel for TBA21–Academy’s three-year curatorial fellowship program, The Current IV: Caribbean, culminating in Ocean Space’s 2025 exhibition otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua [other mountains, adrift beneath the waves], presenting two new site-specific commissions by Nadia Huggins and Tessa Mars. The exhibition explores the potential of improvisation~freestyle as an aesthetic tool and strategy for transcending terrestrial and extractivist perspectives, reimagining life-support systems, and grappling with entrenched notions of power. These thematic strands are further brought to the surface by the exhibition’s public program.
In conjunction with otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua, in Ocean Space’s Research Room, visitors can also experience Echoes of the Sanctuary, an exhibition curated by Louise Carver, presenting TBA21–Academy’s long-term work weaving together marine conservation, regenerative development, and artistic production in Jamaica in partnership with the Alligator Head Foundation.
All events are accessible until the maximum capacity of the space is reached. For more information on the events, please visit the TBA21 and Ocean Space websites.
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
2pm: TERRITORIES OF CO-COGNITION. Automation, ethics, built environment.
A symposium organized by The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, in collaboration with TBA21–Academy. Curated by Roberto Bottazzi, Ilaria Di Carlo and Annarita Papeschi. The event is supported by Arup and the ARF of the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. See more
Thursday, May 8, 2025
10:30am: Mediated Soundscapes: On Swamps & Underwater Mountains
A morning of conversations, readings, and listening sessions in collaboration with Storefront for Art and Architecture, and an artist talk with Yina Jiménez Suriel, Nadia Huggins, and Tessa Mars. See more
2:30pm: After Rain Visual Reader—Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024
Book launch and conversation with Ute Meta Bauer, highlighting the multiple collaborations between artists from many parts of the world that led up to making the 2024 Diriyah biennale. See more
Friday, May 9, 2025
9am: Beyond the Prize. How Architecture Awards Can Catalyse Meaningful Change
Hosted by Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, the EUmies Awards, the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, the OBEL Award, and the Ammodo Architecture Award in collaboration with TBA21–Academy's Ocean Space. Booking required. See more
Saturday, May 10, 2025
10am: Archipelago for Possible Futures Summit. A New European Vision for Culture, Ecology, and Technology
In collaboration with the New European Bauhaus, CultTech Association, and TBA21–Academy. Booking required. See more
8pm: for the times of sonic caves. An exploration of improvisation~freestyle
Performances by Vivian Caccuri & Thiago Lanis (in collaboration with Fondazione Ratti), Hannah Catherine Jones, and Kelman Duran. See more
Sunday, May 11, 2025
11am: Tales From Earth. Nature Co-Author of Human Art and Cultural Heritage
A day of talks, panel discussions, and an evening concert organized by AEON Collective in collaboration with TBA21–Academy. See more
