With the title Terra [Earth], the Brazilian Pavilion at the 2023 Architecture Biennale proposes rethinking the past to trace a possible future
The Terra [Earth] project for the Brazil Pavilion at the Biennale starts from a reflection on Brazil of the past, present and future.
The installation takes into consideration the earth both as a poetic element and as a concrete element in the exhibition space.
To put the public in direct contact with the tradition of indigenous territories, the homes of Quilombola and the candomblé ceremonies, the entire pavilion will be filled with earth.

Brazil as a land

The curators say: "Our curatorial proposal is based on thinking of Brazil as earth. Earth as soil, fertiliser, ground and territory.
But also earth in its global and cosmic sense, as planet and common house of all life, human and non-human.
Earth as memory, and also as future, looking at the past and at heritage to expand the field of architecture in the face of the most pressing contemporary urban, territorial and environmental issues"

The Sankofa symbol

Some elements of Brazilian public housing - the fences with the sankofa symbol - placed at the entrance to the pavilion contrast with the modernist features of the pavilion designed by Henrique Mindlin, built in 1964.
This symbol, used for the fences of most Brazilian cities, means "looking to our ancestors to build a better future" and comes from the Akan people of West Africa.

The pavilion is divided into two parts

The first gallery of the modernist pavilion has been called Decolonizing the canon by the curators, to question the imagery surrounding the version that Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, was built in the middle of nowhere.
With the "imposition" of the modernist city, its indigenous inhabitants and Quilombola were in fact pushed to the margins.
The second gallery is titled Places of origin, archeologies of the future and welcomes with the projection of the video by Ayrson Heráclito The Shaking of the Casa da Torre and The Shaking of the Maison des Esclaves in Gorée, from 2015.

The curators

Afro-Brazilian architect and urban planner, Gabriela de Matos is vice president of the São Paulo Department of the Brazilian Institute of Architects, and founder of the Arquitetas Negras project, which maps the production of black Brazilian architects.< /div>

of her Her multidisciplinary projects aim to promote Brazilian architectural and urban culture from the point of view of race and gender. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning of PUC Minas, she specializes in Sustainability and Management of the Built Environment at UFMG.
Paulo Tavares explores the interfaces between architecture, visual cultures, curating, theory. Working across multiple media and mediums, his work focuses on environmental justice and counter-narratives in architecture.

His projects and texts have been presented in various national and international exhibitions and publications. </ div>

Brazil Pavilion, Biennale 2023, in brief

• Title: Terra [Earth] 
• Curators: Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares
• Commissioner: José Olympio da Veiga Pereira, president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
• Exhibitors: Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto, Ayrson Heráclito, Day Rodrigues with the participation of Vilma Patricia, Fissura, Ilê Axé Iyá Nassô Oká (Casa Branca do Engenho Velho), Juliana Vicente, Leandro Vieira, Mbya-Guarani Indigenous People, Tukano, Arawak and Maku Indigenous Peoples, Tecelãs do Alaká (Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá), Thierry Oussou, Vídeo nas Aldeias Commissioner: José Olympio da Veiga Pereira, president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
• Read more Fundação Bienal de São Paulo www.bienal.org.br</ a>