Chile Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale Presents 500 Paintings of Community Life

The Chile Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, titled "Testimonial Spaces," features 500 oil paintings depicting everyday life in the José Maria Caro neighborhood of Santiago, Chile. Curated by Emilio Marin and Rodrigo Sepúlveda, the installation is housed in a temporary electric-blue wooden volume at the Arsenale. The project responds to curator Hashim Sarkis's question "How Will We Live Together?" by collecting memories from residents through collaboration with community representatives and historians. Paintings follow strict parameters: no faces, no material details, a set color palette, and uniform size. The curators chose oil paint over architectural drawing to evoke the fragility of memory. The exhibition presents the works as a visual landscape without chronological order, emphasizing collective experience over individual interpretation.