Atxu Amann has been announced as the curator for the Spanish pavilion at the 2018 Venice architecture biennale, which will be held from May 26 to November 25, 2018. The announcement was made on the official instagram page of the master degree she teaches in architectural communication at ETSAM.

Amann graduated from ETSAM in 1987, the same year in which she founded the office "temperatures extremas" with Andrés Cánovas Alcaraz and Nicolás Maruri Mendoza. The office has won over 100 prizes and awards for its work. She completed her doctorate at ETSAM in 2007.

Primarily interested in academic research, she is currently the principal researcher of the Hypermedia research group: architecture and architectural communication workshop, where she promotes research projects and directs doctoral theses, TFG and TFM and has been responsible for the creation of the architectural communication in the ETSAM.

Video by TEDx Talks (Spanish)

In July this year, Amann gave a talk at the Tedx:Madrid Salon, an event with a theme of public space, with specific focus on Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Her talk, entitled "Gender, labels and public space" explored the paralyzing role of labels in gender issues in the public space.

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, directors of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Image © Andrea Avezzu

The theme of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, directed by Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, is "freespace". The theme was chosen by the pair to celebrate "generosity and thoughtfulness," and "a desire to engage." 

Speaking in January of this year the President of La Biennale, Paolo Baratta, the 2018 theme will permit a continuation of the theme explored by Alejandro Aravena in his 2016 Biennale, "reporting the front", which underlined the importance for architecture to meet the needs of individuals and communities with effective responses. However, Grafton's Biennale will approach this theme "from the point of view of the quality of the public and private space, of urban space, of the territory and of the landscape as the main ends of architecture."

Previous curators of the Spanish pavilion have included Iñaqui Carnicero and Carlos Quintáns in 2016, Iñaki Ábalos in 2014. The 2016 Spanish entry, entitled "Unfinished" was awarded the "Golden Lion", a prize awarded to the best national pavilion. 

Top image: Atxu Amann at the recent Tedx in Madrid. Image © MACA

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