- Conférence
- La Biennale di Venezia
Down to Earth
Upon registration, free entry
@ luca - Luxembourg Center for Architecture
From the development of human settlements on the Moon to the asteroid mining of rare minerals and metals – the wild imaginaries of extraction-driven growth have, quite literally, transcended the boundaries of the Earth. This displacement of resource exploitation from the exhausted Earth to its ‘invisible’ backstages – celestial bodies, planets, and ultimately, the Moon itself – calls for an urgent debate on the impact this shift will have on our understanding of land, resources, and the commons.
It starts by asking : How does this new iteration of the space race, wrapped in the false promises of endlessly available resources, departs from the existing extractivist logic of capitalism and its destructive environmental and social effects on the ground? How will the ongoing privatization of space, characterized by a sharp turn towards private companies as main actors in the exploitation of space resources, affect the current status of extra-terrestrial bodies as a form of commons? What are the materialities of space mining – its logistics, infrastructures, and workers – and their relationship to the existing geopolitical power hierarchies?
This lecture offers an interdisciplinary and critical prospect on the space mining project through the presentation of Down to Earth, representing Luxembourg at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale.
- Upon registration, free entry
- Language : English
This lecture is organised by luca, within the framework of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. With the support of Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg.
Francelle Cane & Marija Marić
Researchers, curators of the Luxembourg Pavilion 2023
Francelle Cane is an architect, researcher, and curator based in Luxembourg. She is a doctoral researcher at the Chair of Urban Regeneration, University of Luxembourg. Her practice focuses on transversal and multidisciplinary research activities tied to the question of ruin: she follows a critical spatial design approach on issues revolving around soil, spatial policies, or the man-altered landscape. She has curated and designed exhibitions including Enter the Modern Landscape (2019) and Rising Waters (2018), both held at Bozar, Brussels.
Marija Marić is an architect and researcher based in Luxembourg. She is working as a postdoctoral research associate at the Master in Architecture Programme, University of Luxembourg. In 2020, she obtained her doctoral degree from the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich, with her thesis examining the role of communication strategists in the mediation, design and globalisation of urban space. Her research is organised around the questions of architecture, real estate, media, and the production of the built environment and its imaginaries in the context of global capitalism and the global flow of information.
