Barcelona-based Benedetta Tagliabue opens immersive piece at Venice Biennale of Architecture

The Barcelona-based architecture studio Miralles Tagliabue EMBT opened its immersive experience piece, 'The Architecture of Virtual Water,' at the Venice Biennale of Architecture this week. The piece is an immersive display on the invisibility of water.

The display will be open to visitors at Venice's L'Arsenale until November 23, coinciding with the 19th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture. After the event finishes, the display will be moved to Barcelona.

"A lot of time, we forget that water is in places that we cannot see it, in this exhibition, we want to talk about the implications it has to create a larger and general awareness," Benedetta Tagliabue told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) in Venice.

The structure talks about the water "that we cannot see" to encourage visitors to consider the importance of Earth's natural resources.

'The Architecture of Virtual Water' is located in one of the most central sites in the Italian city and welcomes visitors to try an "immersive, critical, and sensorial" experience.

"This is one of the few places where you can sit down and listen to music and watch some footage," Tagliabue said before adding that the "information slowly appears." 

Trip to Barcelona

Once the Biennale of Architecture finishes, the studio plans to return the display to Barcelona so it can continue to generate dialogue and raise awareness.

Despite being made with delicate materials such as paper and cardboard, Tagliabue says they are very easy to "pack and move around."

EMBT is also exhibiting at the Albanese and Italian pavilions, in addition to 'The Architecture of Virtual Water'. "Catalans are good architects and very willful," Tagliabue told ACN. In her case, the relationship between Catalonia and Italy is very natural, as she considers herself Catalan. " But I have studied and lived here in Venice, and this is why I love to come back."