Air/Aria/Aire

Air/Aria/Aire is an exhibition presented by the Institut Ramon Llull as part of the collateral events of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. The project reflects on the Biennale’s central theme, “How will we live together?”, with an investigation into air as a common good that must be preserved to survive collectively. The exhibition highlights the role of architecture and urbanism in the context of two interconnected global crises: climate change and the public health crisis.

The curatorial project presents urban research commissioned to 300,000 Km/s and musical research commissioned to Maria Arnal and John Talabot. Both investigations are transformed into an exhibition, conceptualized and designed by Olga Subirós, which proposes an immersion in the radical experience of air pollution through a large multisensory installation.

Catalonia in Venice – Air/Aria/Aire starts with the study of the city based on the application of new digital technologies for the analysis of massive data, understood as a valuable tool for citizen empowerment and for architects designing more sustainable, healthy, and equitable  cities.

The exhibition and accompanying media outlets, such as publication, podcasts, and workshops focus on data analysis in the service of citizenship and identify actions aimed at rethinking urban design and the need for access to this open data.

The project was and continues to be particularly relevant in the context of the health crisis caused by air pollution, which according to the WHO is responsible for 7 million premature deaths per year. Numerous studies have linked air pollution to a higher incidence of Covid-19 cases in urban areas, a fact that supports the right to breathe clean air on which this proposal is based. Epidemics have always been an opportunity to accelerate the introduction of urban planning measures aimed at improving health in cities. This new public health crisis, together with the air pollution crisis and the climate crisis, pushes the need to adopt new sustainable and healthy urban planning measures supported by an interdisciplinary, collaborative, and participatory model mediated by data.