BEFORE THE FUTURE

Before the Future

—Ukrainian Pavilion at the 18th Biennale Architettura in Venice. 

Before the Future marks the return of the Pavilion of Ukraine to the Biennale Architettura 2023 after a nine-year absence. The catalog contains texts and images by the curators and collectives, as well as additional articles and essays that expand on the discussions initiated within the project.

In the exhibition and its accompanying program, the grass-covered defensive earthworks in the Giardini and the dark, enclosed shelter in the Arsenale are spaces for Ukrainian architects and practitioners from various fields to raise questions—questions about telling stories during wartime, about the value of collective action in the face of threat, about the multitude of topics that unite architects in Ukraine today, about questions that must be asked today, before the future. 

Over a period of four months, five temporary collectives create a program of changing exhibitions in both locations of the Pavilion—about reconstruction, ecology, care, commemoration, and the future. These exhibitions originate from within the Ukrainian context and involve a wide range of participants, with the aim of creating spaces and dialogues fostering mutual understanding.

Team

ist publishing 

Curators: Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov, Borys Filonenko

Editors: Oleksii Petrov, Kateryna Ulianova 

Texts: Nikita Bielokopytov, Daria Borovyk, Artem Borysov, Oleksandr Burlaka, Alex Bykov, Anna Dobrova, Oksana Dovgopolova, Nina Dyrenko, Uliana Dzhurliak, Borys Filonenko, Ivan Grabko, Dmytro Gurin, Yuliia Holiuk, Ania Kołyszko, Dana (Bogdana) Kosmina, Bohdan Kuchenko, Sasha Kurmaz, Iryna Miroshnykova, Ivan Moysiyenko, Nataliia Mysak, Anton Oliynyk, Elena Orap, Oleksii Pakhomov, Maria Pakhomova, Anna Pashynska, Tania Pashynska, Oleksii Petrov, Dasha Podoltseva, Ivan Protasov, Daryna Pyrogova, Oleksandra Sakharuk, Kateryna Semenyuk, Olena Shchepeleva, Vadym Sidash, Darya Tsymbalyuk, Oleksii Vasyliuk, commercial public art (Svitlanka Konoplyova, Borys Medvedik), Prykarpattian Theater, The Center for Spatial Technologies (CST).

Cover photo: Sasha Kurmaz

Visual identity: Fedoriv marketing ↺ innovations

Design and layout: Ostap Yashchuk

Translation from Ukrainian into English: Iryna Kurhanska, Mariana Matveichuk, Maria Pravda

Editor of English texts: Clemens Poole

Editors of Ukrainian texts: Iryna Kurhanska, Oleksandra Sauliak, Daryna Vazhynska, Victoria Berkut

Corrector of English texts: Iryna Kurhanska

Corrector of Ukrainian texts: Victoria Berkut