The Word and the Action

The project is inspired by the prophetic insights of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’, to which we pay sincere homage, especially for placing art and architecture at the service of the community and the marginalized — the visit to the Women’s Prison in Venice last year, where the Holy See Pavilion was set up for the Art Biennale, left a strong impression on everyone. The foundational idea of the 2025 Pavilion stems from the belief that repair does not mean returning to a lost order, but rather generating a creative and inclusive action, capable of embracing fragility and opening up to the unexpected.  “Opera aperta” (Open Work) evokes Umberto Eco’s famous concept, but here it takes on a concrete and tangible meaning: a work in progress, where the restoration of the walls proceeds alongside the weaving of bonds, listening, and building new possibilities for coexistence.

The “parable pavilion” — as Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Pontifical Prefect for Culture, defines it — is a collective call to responsibility and interdependence: not a vision to be contemplated, but a reality to be inhabited together, involving local associations and actors. “By revitalizing an existing structure, we value its cracks and losses not as flaws to hide, but as thresholds toward new possibilities. They invite us to reimagine the relationship between past and future,” explains Marina Otero Verzier, curator of the project alongside Giovanna Zabotti, “between growth and decay, rupture and regeneration. We honor the layered stories embedded in the place, while creating space for those who will come after us.” During the seven months of the Biennale, the complex will truly be inhabited: restoration workshops led by the International University of Art together with local artisans; social gatherings around a community kitchen run by the Nonsoloverde cooperative; open rehearsals and live music thanks to the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory. At the heart of it all is the monumental recovery intervention by Lares, open to the public Monday through Thursday from 10 am to 6 pm: a construction site that becomes an integral part of the experience and makes explicit its transformative vocation. The presence of cultural mediators from Ca’ Foscari University and IUSVE ensures accessible dialogue with those passing through the space as visitors, citizens, or simply curious onlookers. Designed by the international firms Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO and MAIOArchitects, the Pavilion reflects on architecture as a tool for collective care. Every mark of time is welcomed, not erased. The building is not a finished object, but a complex and delicate ecosystem made of matter and memory. A concrete and poetic invitation to rethink the meaning of dwelling with affection and respect toward others and, above all, toward the Planet — the home we all share.