Research Colloquia - Bilge Kalfa

The Türkiye Pavilion Presents “Grounded” Exhibition at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale

Speaker: Bilge Kalfa Co-Curator of The Türkiye Pavilion 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Adjunct Prof. Berlin International University of Applied Sciences

Abstract:  With Grounded, we invite visitors to view soil not as something separate, but as an integral part of the same fabric of life that surrounds us. It’s not merely a surface beneath us or a resource to be extracted; rather, it’s a dense, intelligent world in its own right – one we’re already part of. Through material experiments, artistic documentation and scientific observation, the exhibition encourages us to rethink our role in this dynamic exchange. It prompts us to recognise the structures we erode and the possibilities we often overlook. In doing so, it suggests ways of living and building that don’t impose themselves but instead listen to and engage with the environment.