{"id":2224,"date":"2026-06-30T11:45:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/uncategorized\/the-lithuanian-pavilion-at-the-venice-architecture-biennale-to-be-curated-by-andrius-ropolas\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T11:56:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:56:37","slug":"the-lithuanian-pavilion-at-the-venice-architecture-biennale-to-be-curated-by-andrius-ropolas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/news\/the-lithuanian-pavilion-at-the-venice-architecture-biennale-to-be-curated-by-andrius-ropolas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lithuanian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale to be curated by Andrius Ropolas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The National Architecture Institute (NAI) presents the curator of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale – architect Andrius Ropolas. <\/p>\n\n

In 2027, the Lithuanian Pavilion \u201cDesanctification\u201d will explore themes of heritage transformation, the adaptation of buildings to future needs, and the idea of architecture as untouchable. <\/p>\n\n

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Andrius Ropolas (Photo by Visvaldas Morkevi\u010dius)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

\u201cWhen developing the Lithuanian Pavilion, we wanted to invite a curator who could speak about architecture as a cultural, social and critical phenomenon. Andrius Ropolas\u2019 experience, which connects architectural practice, writing, criticism and an international perspective, allows this topic to be seen more broadly. Through the pavilion, we want to raise questions about how we understand architectural heritage today, its values and its capacity for change,\u201d says K\u0119stutis Kuizinas, Commissioner of the Lithuanian Pavilion and Director of NAI. <\/p>\n\n

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K\u0119stutis Kuizinas (Photo by Darius Matonis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Andrius Ropolas is an architect and partner at the architectural office Office De Architectura. He studied at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and the University of Tokyo, and completed his master\u2019s degree at KU Leuven University in Belgium. He has worked in Denmark, Belgium, Japan and the United Kingdom, contributing to urban visions and architectural projects in Europe and Asia. As an architecture critic and writer, he has published texts on architecture in Lithuanian and international publications, and participates in educational and cultural projects. <\/p>\n\n

According to the curator, the theme of the pavilion emerged from observing the ongoing transformation of the Kaunas Central Post Office: \u201cAn increasing part of our environment is becoming protected, which means that there are more and more \u2018sacred\u2019, untouchable objects where change can hardly take place. This tendency is not unique to Lithuania – it is a global process. In the pavilion, we will provoke a discussion about \u2018Desanctification\u2019, i.e. the \u2018desanctification\u2019 of heritage. Both the future pavilion space and the exhibition itself will invite us to rethink the values of architecture and heritage. How would we live if our entire environment were heritage?\u201d says A. Ropolas.<\/p>\n\n

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Restoration works at the Kaunas Central Post Office (Photo by Darius Matonis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The transformation of the Kaunas Central Post Office will be presented in the pavilion as a concrete example of a broader theme. One of the most important objects of Lithuanian modernist architecture is today being transformed into the National Architecture Institute – a new institution that will collect, research and present the field of Lithuanian architecture. <\/p>\n\n

The Lithuanian Pavilion in Venice is planned to be located in a former church that has been converted into a sports and community hall. The space itself will become part of the pavilion\u2019s theme: it will tell the story of how historical, symbolically powerful architectural spaces can be reused, transformed and given new functions. <\/p>\n\n

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Kaunas Central Post Office (Photo by Giedrius Me\u0161kauskas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

In the exhibition, this transformation will be revealed through real fragments of the building\u2019s transformation, interpretations of the post office\u2019s interior, furniture and floor motifs, as well as the future directions of NAI\u2019s activities. The pavilion will include details of the institution\u2019s archive, library, research, collection development and public programme – the elements that will shape NAI\u2019s future work in the Kaunas Central Post Office. <\/p>\n\n

The architecture of the pavilion will be created by Suzuko Yamada, one of the most prominent architects of Japan\u2019s younger generation, and her architectural office. According to the curator, an international perspective is important for this project because the content presented in Venice will be distinctly Lithuanian, while an external viewpoint allows us to see ourselves more clearly from the outside. The themes of interweaving, multilayeredness and the blurring of boundaries developed in the work of Suzuko Yamada Architects align with the idea of the pavilion and expand it within an international architectural context. <\/p>\n\n

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Suzuko Yamada (Photo by Fujii Yui)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale is organised by NAI and funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Architecture Institute (NAI) presents the curator of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale – architect Andrius Ropolas. In 2027, the Lithuanian Pavilion \u201cDesanctification\u201d will explore themes of heritage transformation, the adaptation of buildings to future needs, and the idea of architecture as untouchable. \u201cWhen developing the Lithuanian Pavilion, we wanted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[46,48,47],"class_list":["post-2224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-andrius-ropolas","tag-kauno-centrinis-pastas","tag-venecijos-bienale"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2225,"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224\/revisions\/2225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nai.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}