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ACTUAL, NEWS 12.05.2025

Living the Border: Latvia’s Pavilion Confronts Defence Infrastructure

#pavilion #venice architecture biennale #latvia

Latvia’s Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, titled LANDSCAPE OF DEFENCE, presents a powerful and immersive reflection on what it means to live at NATO’s eastern frontier. Curated by Liene Jākobsone and Ilka Ruby, and designed by Latvian architecture studios SAMPLING and NOMAD, the exhibition explores the interplay of military infrastructure, civilian life, and landscape in Latvia’s border regions with Russia and Belarus.

© Michiel De Cleene
© Michiel De Cleene
© Michiel De Cleene
© Michiel De Cleene

Staged in the Arsenale's Artiglierie, the installation is anchored by a large circular curtain displaying a photographic panorama of the fortified borderland — from watchtowers to barbed wire — alongside fluorescent replicas of defence structures and personal objects. Videos, testimonies, and maps complete a narrative that is both geopolitical and human.

Without proposing easy answers, LANDSCAPE OF DEFENCE opens a space for dialogue on the ethics, aesthetics, and societal impacts of militarized borders — a theme made even more urgent in today's Europe. A fold-out publication by Ruby Press, designed to resemble a passport, further extends the exhibition's exploration of identity, control, and territory.

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