Venice
Italy
Following a nation-wide competition, the Canada Council for the Arts, as Commissioner, is delighted to announce that Mark Wasiuta, Theodora Vardouli and Farzin Lotfi-Jam have been selected to curate Early Warning Architecture as Canada’s official representation at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale. The exhibition will be featured at the Canada Pavilion from May 8 to November 21, 2027, with McGill University as a presenting partner.
Early Warning Architecture situates architecture at the centre of the most urgent technological, environmental and geopolitical issues of our time. The exhibition makes visible an immense structure of physical and informational systems that we collectively inhabit, often unknowingly. These systems continually monitor the environment, translate it into signals, process the signals to calculate risk and issue warnings that drive pre-emptive action and response.
Uncovering historical traces of frozen radar stations, underground bunkers, undersea hydrophones, sleeping quarters and decision rooms, the project presents a distinctively Canadian account of this global condition. It connects this history to our contested present, where the Canadian North is being actively reshaped as one of the most technologically dense sensing environments on the planet. It demonstrates how architecture is implicated in climate change, disappearing ice, new geopolitical pressures and questions of sovereignty. Alongside an extended research team of philosophers, historians of technology, and remote sensing experts, Early Warning Architecture examines these territorial realignments to imagine a multitude of Arctic and global futures.
A critical aspect of Early Warning Architecture is how Arctic militarization has profoundly affected Inuit lands and lives. The curatorial team will work with Indigenous Studies scholars as well as with Indigenous leaders and community members to ensure respectful recognition of this impact and to create meaningful opportunities for sharing their knowledge and perspectives.
Michelle Chawla, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts, shared, “The Canada Council is proud to support Mark Wasiuta, Theodora Vardouli and Farzin Lotfi-Jam, who have been selected to represent Canada at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale. Their proposal brings a timely curatorial vision—one that invites audiences to think critically about how architecture can help us anticipate, interpret, and respond to the complex challenges shaping our communities today. The Canada Council believes in the critical importance of investing in the international presence of Canadian creativity at platforms like the Venice Architecture Biennale, showcasing distinctly Canadian perspectives and connecting them with the wider world. We look forward to seeing this ambitious project animate the Canada Pavilion and spark meaningful dialogue on an international stage.”
The team and proposal was chosen from among five finalists by a Council-designated selection committee comprised of Betsy Williamson, architect and principal, Williamson Williamson; Sergio Morales, architect and founding partner, Chevalier Morales; Naomi Potter, director/curator, Esker Foundation; and David Fortin, architect and principal, David T Fortin Architect, and professor, University of Waterloo School of Architecture.
Mark Wasiuta, Theodora Vardouli and Farzin Lotfi-Jam said, “Our team is thrilled to represent Canada at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale and to receive the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for this exceptional opportunity. We are truly committed to the ideas and issues our project raises for architecture, especially at a time of intense new global pressures. The Biennale is the most important forum for sharing this work with the public and with our peers. We look forward to working with our academic communities, especially our presenting partner, McGill University, and our expanded team on a focused research exhibition that we hope will have a strong and immediate impact.”
Mark Wasiuta is an architect, writer and curator who co-directs the Critical, Curatorial and Conceptual Practices in Architecture program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. His work contends with problems of media, environment and technology in architecture and its experimental practices.
Theodora Vardouli, PhD, is an architect and scholar of the historical entwining of architecture, mathematics and computing. She is an associate professor at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, at McGill University, where she directs the Computational Design Exploratory (CoDEx).
Farzin Lotfi-Jam is an architect whose work examines the politics of technology, computation and cities. He is an assistant professor of Architecture at Cornell University, where he directs the Realtime Urbanism lab.
Learn more about Canada’s representation at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
