81. Venice Film Festival
80. Venice Film Festival
79. Venice Film Festival
The Biennale Arte Guide
Foreigners Everywhere
The Biennale Architecture Guide
The Laboratory of the Future
The Biennale Arte Guide
Il latte dei sogni
A powerful image welcomes visitors at the entrance to the Lithuanian space at the Ospedaletto Complex: an uprooted tree stump, bare and wounded. It stands as a tangible symbol of what so often vanishes silently from our urban landscapes—not just trees, but also memory, identity, and continuity.
Curated by Gintaras Balčytis and promoted by the Lithuanian Union of Architects, the project explores the deep relationship between architecture and the urban environment – a theme that is particularly relevant in Lithuania today, where new development plans are rapidly transforming entire neighborhoods, even leading to the felling of centuries-old oak trees, silent guardians of collective memory. The installation is based on the idea of an empathetic architecture – one that listens to the landscape, acknowledges its memory, and responds not only to functional needs but also to the wounds of the land and society. As Pavilion Commissioner Jūratė Tutlytė emphasized, in a context like Lithuania’s – where even the smallest urban change now provokes a strong social reaction – the felling of trees is no longer seen as a mere technical operation, but as a collective trauma that prompts citizens to respond and resist.
The narrative unfolds in three sections. The first is centered around the installation of an uprooted stump, a direct reference to the erasure of the past through processes of modernization. This is followed by a collection of architectural models, created between the late 20th century and the 21st, inspired by local green spaces – concrete examples of design that seeks to harmonize with, rather than dominate, the natural context. Here, sustainable architecture is understood not only in environmental terms, but also as a cultural gesture – an act of respect toward what came before. The exhibition concludes with a white cube, onto which an audiovisual installation is projected, weaving together images, sounds, and words to evoke the connections between nature, the city, and human creation. The result is a suspended, meditative experience that encourages visitors to rethink the ways we build and inhabit our present.
The Lithuanian project goes beyond a traditional exhibition format, functioning as an open laboratory that engages professionals, researchers, and students from various European universities. It will culminate in a public symposium scheduled from September 22 to 28, conceived as a moment of international dialogue on architecture, nature, and active citizenship.
