Metropolis — “‘We Will Not Stand Silent’: 150 Demonstrators Gather at the Venice Biennale to Demand Equity in Architecture”
May 25, 2018
“At 11 a.m. today at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Odile Decq, Martha Thorne, and Farshid Moussavi stood on a bench by the leafy entrance to the Giardini and read a manifesto for women in architecture.
Positing themselves as ‘voices of women,’ the trio spoke out about the fact that women are still a minority in the field of design. Decq and her colleagues also cited this year’s Biennale—titled FREESPACE and curated by Irish female architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara—as a ‘a crucial moment of awakening to promote equitable and respectful treatment of all members of the architectural community irrespective of gender, race, nationality, sexuality and religion.
‘We will not tolerate it. We will not stand silent,’ Thorne read from a prepared statement.
Among the demonstrators was architect Jeanne Gang, founder of Chicago firm Studio Gang and a Biennale participant. ‘This is a very important show of solidarity,’ she said speaking to Metropolis. ‘We have so many women architects in the same place, this is a gathering of energy. We need to use it to enforce non-discrimination on gender, sexuality, sexual preference, and race.’”
