The Ball Theater is a hemispherical theatre built inside the French Pavilion, a pavilion within a pavilion. It responds to the general theme of the biennale – The Laboratory of the Future – set by Lesley Lokko, because the theatre is in essence a laboratory of identities, places and imaginations. It is a device that allows us to project ourselves into another place and into the future. The curators have opted for a constructed architecture capable of offering visitors a spatial, aesthetic and sound experience. Indeed, according to Lesley Lokko, the role of architecture is no longer to represent or to be represented as an image. It must be real, tangible and concrete to become a place where life, society and the future are experienced! We must no longer avoid architecture, we must practise it and experience it. We must not dwell in retrospection, as most exhibitions do, but rather exist in the future. We decide what comes next. 

Discover the project through video and view the press kit. 

The Institut français is the operator of the French Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia 2023, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.