BK Expo: BK Africa

“There is one place in which all these questions of equity, resources, race, hope and fear converge and coalesce. Africa. At an anthropological level, we are all African. And what happens in Africa happens to us all.” - Lesley Lokko, Curator of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition. Venice, 2023

In her introduction to the upcoming International Architecture Exhibition in Venice titled “The Laboratory of the Future”, Lesley Lokko affirms: “Africa is the laboratory of the future. We are the world’s youngest continent, with an average age half that of Europe and the United States [of America], and a decade younger than Asia. We are the world’s fastest urbanising continent, growing at a rate of almost 4% per year. This rapid and largely unplanned growth is generally at the expense of local environment and ecosystems, which put us at the coal face of climate change at both a regional and planetary level.”

Following Lokko’s invitation to bring Africa to the frontline of speculation(s) on the future, BK-Expo launches this open call for contributions to the upcoming exhibition “BK Africa: A Laboratory of the Future?”, to be opened in the Oostserre of our Faculty on the 30th of March, 2023.

Open call

Veering away from common representations of Africa as a homogenous space, this exhibition’s aspiration is to highlight an oft forgotten reality: that Africa is a vast continent - a complex collection of diverse territories, cultures, histories, societies, and built environments. The exhibition aims to include as many voices as possible beyond popular design discourse, showcasing a wide array of recent projects, research, and other types of initiatives addressing the current rapid transformation of the African built environment.

Everyone wishing to contribute is welcome to send their work focusing on the African continent initiated in the last 5 years.

A selection of works from this exhibition will be part of the Faculty’s contribution to the exhibition "Time Space Existence" at the European Cultural Centre in Venice, on show from May 2023 to November 2023, organised in parallel to the 2023 Venice Biennale.