UK-Malaysia team set to bring Festival of Hungry Ghosts to British Pavilion at 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale
The British Council has announced that the British Pavilion at the next Venice Architecture Biennale will be curated by a team of UK-based curators in collaboration with a trio of Penang-based artisans.
Planned to mark "70 years of diplomatic relations" between UK and Malaysia, the curation of the pavilion will be led by Grymsdyke Farm founding director Guan Lee and IDK founder Mike Lim, supported by writer and lecturer Maria McLintock and curator and sound artist Ben Swaby Selig.
The UK-based curation team will collaborate with artisans Ng Chi Wang, Lee Shao Chin and Koh Eng Keat to create the Festival of Hungry Ghosts with the pavilion.
Described as a "festival within a festival", the space will focus on impermanence and the "living traditions" that travel with migration.
"We are thrilled to bring the Festival of Hungry Ghosts to the British Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2027, as a joyful celebration of diasporic culture and the living traditions that travel, transform, and endure through migration," said the team.
"Marking the opening and closing of the underworld, the festival is shaped by acts of care for both ancestors and wandering spirits. At its core is a construction tradition where impermanence is not a limitation but a guiding logic," it continued.
"A festival within a festival, this living ritual has travelled to Malaysia and now to Venice, transforming with each passage. To build for disappearance is, we believe, one of the most radical acts of architectural thinking available today."
The space itself will contain structures made from recycled paper held on bamboo frames, drawing from Malay tradition.
Next year marks the 70th anniversary of Malaysia gaining independence from the UK.
"As we celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Malaysia, we are excited to work with a curatorial team whose proposal brings together architecture, ritual and cultural memory," said British Council director of architecture, design and fashion Sevra Davis.
"Building on the success of the UK-Kenya collaborative exhibition for the British Pavilion 2025, I am thrilled to continue using the pavilion as a space for cultural connection and collaboration, which lies at the heart of the British Council's mission."
The collaboration follows last year's British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, which was curated by a UK-Kenya team.
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