The British Council has announced that the curation of the British Pavilion for the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale will be a cross-continental endeavor. Led by Guan Lee, director of Grymsdyke Farm, and Mike Lim of IDK, the team will collaborate with a trio of artisans from Penang—Ng Chi Wang, Lee Shao Chin, and Koh Eng Keat—to mark 70 years of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Malaysia.
The project, titled the "Festival of Hungry Ghosts," seeks to transform the pavilion into what the curators describe as a "festival within a festival." By centering on a tradition that honors both ancestors and wandering spirits, the exhibition will explore the "living traditions" that survive and evolve through the process of migration. It is an attempt to map the cultural baggage—rituals, crafts, and social acts of care—that moves with people across borders.
At the heart of the proposal is a philosophical shift regarding the nature of the built environment. Rather than treating architecture as a pursuit of permanence, the team intends to use the festival’s inherent transience as a "guiding logic." In Venice, a city famously grappling with its own preservation, the pavilion will argue that impermanence is not a limitation but a vital, enduring method of construction and community-building.
With reporting from Dezeen Architecture.
Source · Dezeen Architecture
