Mpho Matsipa, Associate Professor and Co-Director of Spatial Justice at The Bartlett School of Architecture, has been appointed to the International Jury of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, taking place from 10 May to 23 November 2025.
Mpho joins an esteemed panel led by Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine), alongside fellow juror Paola Antonelli (MoMA). The jury will be responsible for awarding the Golden Lion for best National Participation, the Golden and Silver Lions for best Participants in the 19th International Exhibition Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective, and additional special mentions. The Awards Ceremony will be held in Venice on Saturday, 10 May 2025.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential events in global architecture, the Biennale provides a critical platform for contemporary architectural discourse. Mpho brings a distinctive and critically engaged perspective rooted in spatial justice, urban theory and transnational architecture. Her research and curatorial work – spanning South Africa, Europe and the United States – continues to challenge dominant narratives and open up new ways of thinking about cities, design and power. Her appointment reflects The Bartlett’s commitment to supporting architectural scholarship that is both globally engaged and socially responsive.
This year's Biennale is curated by Brazilian architect and researcher Carlo Ratti, under the theme Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. The exhibition will explore the evolving role of architecture in relation to emerging forms of intelligence and the dynamic interplay between human and non-human systems.
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Dr Mpho Matsipa is an educator, researcher and independent curator. She holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, pursued as a Fulbright Scholar. Her curatorial and research interests are at the intersection of urban studies, experimental architecture and visual art. Mpho was a Loeb Fellow 2022 (Harvard GSD), and an associate curator for the Lubumbashi Biennale, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2022).