The Golden Lion Award to Sandi Hilal
LTH's visiting professor in architecture, Sandi Hilal, recently received the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Architecture Biennale. At LTH, she works on developing artistic research within architecture with Lise Meitner funds.
– Published 31 May 2023
Sandi Hilal, adjunct professor at the department of architecture and built environment at LTH, and Alessandro Petti, professor at the Royal Institute of Art, have won the Golden Lion for best contribution to the main exhibition at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale. Together, they run the artistic studio DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Research), combining architecture, art, pedagogy, and politics. Over the past 20 years, they have carried out several research projects in the areas of justice, inclusion, and equality.
The award-winning installation at the Venice Biennale depicts a facade of the main building in the Sicilian village of Borgo, built in 1940. It also addresses complex issues of cultural heritage and its management. For example, it highlights the fascist architecture in Sicily and its parallels to fascist colonial urban planning in Libya, Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.
Since 2021, Sandi Hilal holds a Lise Meitner professorship at LTH. The Lise Meitner professorships are part of LTH’s work for gender equality and diversity – a work that ultimately will ensure brilliance within the academy and ensure that LTH attracts outstanding employees and talented students to LTH.
Through the guest professorship, distinguished researchers of underrepresented gender are invited to the faculty as a visiting professor to conduct research and act as role models for young researchers, teachers, and students at LTH for three years.
The Venice Architecture Biennale takes place between May 20 and November 26, 2023.