Kazuyo Sejima has been named as President of the International Jury of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, appointed by the Board of Directors of Venice Architecture Biennale upon recommendation by the Curator Hashim Sarkis. 

Alongside Japanese Pritzker-prize winning architect Kazuyo Sejima, Peruvian architect Sandra Barclay, Lebanese architect and filmmaker Lamia Joreige, Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and novelist Professor Lesley Lokko, Italian architect, historian, critic, journalist and curator Luca Molinari have been named four members of the International Jury of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021. 

The International Jury will mainly award the official prizes of the Biennale: Golden Lion for best National Participation, Golden Lion for best participant in the International Exhibition "How will we live together?", Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the International Exhibition "How will we live together?".

Giardini, image © Andrea Avezzù, courtesy of Venice Architecture Biennale

The Jury may also award "a maximum of one special mention to National Participations" and "a maximum of two special mentions to the participants in the International Exhibition "How will we live together?", stated in a press statement. 

The Awards Ceremony will take place in Venice on Monday, August 30th 2021.

This year, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the organizers of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale have decided to move forward to hold a physical exhibition in Venice. 

Hence, the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of Venice Architecture Biennale will open to the public on May 22nd and will continue until November 21st, 2021 at the Arsenale and the Giardini venues.

Read on to learn more about the jury members of the International Jury:

Kazuyo Sejima - president (Japan)

Architect and winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2010, she curated the Biennale Architettura (People meet in architecture) that same year. Owner and founder of the firm SANAA with Ryue Nishizawa, she is distinguished by her commitment to architectural form as the field’s primary domain of intervention in the social and spatial realms.

Sandra Barclay - Jean Pierre Crousse. Image courtesy of Venice Architecture Biennale

Sandra Barclay (Peru), an architect working between Lima and Paris, was the co-curator for the Peruvian Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2016, winning a Special Mention of the Jury. She brings a heightened awareness of the poetic role of architecture as a transformative building act in extreme contexts.

Lamia Joreige ArtesMundi CU. Image © by Polly Thomas, courtesy of Venice Architecture Biennale

Lamia Joreige (Lebanon) is a visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Beirut. Co-founder and co-director of the Beirut Art Center, she offers a very acute view of architecture and the city as cultural material and as rich domains for artistic expression.

Leysey Lokko. Image © Murdo McLeod, courtesy of Venice Architecture Biennale

Lesley Lokko (Ghana-Scotland) is a successful architect and writer who lives between Johannesburg, London, Accra and Edinburgh. She was the founder and director of the Graduate School of Architecture of the University of Johannesburg (2014-2019) and Dean of the Spitzer School of Architecture City College of New York (2019-2021). She is a Visiting Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Lokko brings deep and critical perspective on the relationship between architecture, social, and economic development and the environment.

Luca Molinari. Image © Alberto Cristofari

Luca Molinari (Italy) is an architect, historian, critic, journalist and curator. In 2010 he was the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. He is the scientific director of the M9 Museum in Mestre (Venice). His profile ensures a vast array of angles from which he views architecture, its public role, and the agency of the architect in society.

Top image: Kazuyo Sejima. Image © Aiko Suzuki

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