The curator of the Architecture Biennale 2023, Lesley Lokko, was born in Scotland, raised in Africa, educated in the United States and England ( where he holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of London and a BSc Arch and MArch from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL-University College London) and has taught architecture in the UK, USA, Europe, Australia and now mainly in Africa .
Lesley Lokko: a curriculum like a journey between the old and the new
Specific place from which to look at the rest of the world to understand everything else - as you explained on the occasion of your appointment as curator of the 2023 Biennale - Africa is a continent that really has a lot to give to architecture as well </ strong>.
Here the average age is under twenty, against 40 in Europe, the variety and complexity that distinguish it make it a continent with undoubted potential for architecture. Thanks to her commitment to education, Lokko has come into contact with the imagination of the latest diverse generation of young Africans, who are not only black, but also Indians and whites.
Her curriculum is an intercultural journey between the old and new continent, which sees her simultaneously engaged in the activity of writer (from 2004 to today she has published 11 novels set between Africa, America and Europe), an opportunity to tell about gender, identity, integration, as well as love.
«My female characters are all strong because I don't know any other way to be a woman» says the author.