Intro/Outro: “The Boys are Back in Town,” by Thin Lizzy

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Discussed:

Olalekon Jeyifous – winner of the Silver Lion for “The African Conservation Effort”

Killing Architects + Buzzfeed + local Chinese journalists: “Investigating Xinjiang’s Network of Detention Camps”

Wilson, Yoon, Howeler, Begley, Han – Unknown Unknown: A Space of Memory

Albanian Pavilion: Untimely Meditations

Looty – LIDAR scanning objects of art and selling NFTs against them – expand access to works of art that had been stolen = digital repatriation

Liam Young – The Great Endeavour

Big Shovel – Daniel Yergin

Robots of Brixton – Kibwe Tavares

Forensic Architecture – The Nebelivka Hypothesis

The Dawn of Everything – David Graeber & David Wengrow

Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari

The Economy of Cities – Jane Jacobs

Sweet Water Foundation – “chaord”

DAAR – winner of the Golden Lion for “Ente di Decolonizzazione — Borgo Rizza” 

Black City Astrolabe – J. Yolande Daniels

Saudia Arabia – “Irth” – material focus

UAE – Aridly Abundant

Bahrain – Sweating Assets

NEOM <> Zero-Gravity Urbanism

–          Opening talk with Sir Peter Cook – Archigram

• What the Biennale criticizes is what NEOM is built on…
• Parallel: Brasilia – 50 years of progress in 5
• Contrast: V & A’s exhibition on Tropical Modernism
• Edifice Complex / The Myth of Tabula Rasa:   You can’t build your way out of a lack of institutions – it leads to disastrous consequences. 

Contrast with Canada Pavilion’s “Not for Sale!”

Rating the Tote Bag Designs:

No. 5 – Saudi Arabia

No. 4 --  Hungary

No. 3 – UAE

No. 2 – Switzerland (“Neighbors” with Venezuela)

No. 1 – Canada – AAHA!

Oliver Wainwright’s review for the Guardian