Venice Biennale 2016: Discussions on the Refugee Situation at The Finnish Pavilion

During the Biennale period between 28 May – 27 November 2016 the Finnish Pavilion will act as an event platform. Two public discussions will be organized; one in July and the second one in the fall, as well as various events organized by the winning competition teams. The event program started already on the first public opening day of the Biennale, on Saturday 28th of May, with two different events.

“The Opportunity within the European Crisis” was a discussion with Helsinki Deputy Mayor Anni Sinnemäki and Iranian-Finnish filmmaker Hamy Ramezan, moderated by the curator of the Finnish Pavilion, Marco Steinberg. Here are some of Anni Sinnemäki’s thoughts about the solutions presented in the exhibition. Marco Steinberg’s good summary of the discussion can be found from the exhibition blog frombordertohome.fi.

Later in the afternoon, the Finnish Pavilion welcomed a group of architect activists, a newly founded group named Architecture for Refugees in collaboration with Architecture Sans Frontières International to take over the pavilion for a workshop. Architecture for Refugees is an online platform dedicated to sharing and distributing information of the resources and ways by which architects can take part in assisting refugees.