The Library of Università Iuav di Venezia will host “Iuav: teorie e dibattiti” (Iuav: Theories and Debates) from 16 September to 14 October 2026, an exhibition curated by Mario Farina, Andrea Guerra and Valerio Paolo Mosco, organised as part of the Centenary celebrations.
The exhibition is part of the series “L’Università Iuav e i suoi libri: proiettare la memoria” (Iuav and its books: projecting memory).
“Iuav: teorie e dibattiti” (Iuav: Theories and Debates) explores the ways in which the Venetian School contributed to shaping an international debate on architectural design, modernism and the historical role of architecture, taking the history of the Department of Architectural History as a critical lens through which to observe this process. The aim is not to produce a retrospective celebration, but rather to reconstruct the constellation of theories that made Iuav a centre of advanced research and debate, capable of influencing the global debate.
The exhibition takes the book as its privileged critical medium, as a material trace of genealogies, conflicts and disciplinary repositionings. With a few exceptions, all the books are presented in their first editions, each accompanied by a caption summarising its content and central thesis.
This creates a chronological itinerary that allows visitors to follow the evolution of the debate over time, both through the texts of the captions and visually, through a selection of ‘speaking’ covers and original title pages.
The exhibition is divided into three sections, conceived as three moments tracing the emergence, crisis and renewal of historical method.
The first section, “Prologo. Le genealogie della critica” (Prologue. Genealogies of Criticism), presents texts that, from the 1930s onwards, shaped the ways in which the history of contemporary architecture was read and interpreted. These are the foundational texts behind the idea of the ‘Modern Movement’.
The second section, “Interpretazioni. L’epoca politica del Dipartimento di Storia dell’architettura” (Interpretations. The Political Era of the Department of Architectural History), brings together books documenting the political reflection that emerged within the Department during the 1970s, when questions concerning the critique of ideology and the crisis of modernity came to the fore.
The third section, “Filologie Future” (Future Philologies), documents research undertaken by the Department from the 1980s onwards into the humanist period, the major architects who promoted new formal paradigms, and Venice in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These studies highlight the forces for renewal and conservative reactions that characterised the period, free experimentation and the codification of norms, utopian aspirations and a restless sense of disillusionment.
Exhibition seminar and finissage
On Tuesday 13 October 2026 at 5 pm, the “Iuav: teorie e dibattiti” (Iuav: Theories and Debates) seminar, curated and moderated by Mario Farina, Andrea Guerra and Valerio Paolo Mosco, will take place in sala gradoni of the Library of Università Iuav di Venezia. The seminar will consist of a multi-voiced discussion held within the exhibition space, in which the books marking the exhibition’s key stages will serve as starting points for reconnecting the threads of the theories and debates developed within the Department of Architectural History.
The next exhibition in the series will be entitled “Riedita. L’editoria Iuav” (Riedita. Iuav Publishing) and will run from 21 October to 20 November 2026. It will be curated by Sara Marini, Saul Marcadent and Gianni Sinni.
On the occasion of the Centenary, the Library opens its collections to the public as a means of exploring the past century, and the disciplines, ideas and visions that have shaped the history of the University.
For Università Iuav di Venezia, the Centenary is not only an opportunity to critically reconsider its own history, but above all a chance to look ahead, strengthen its cultural and educational role, and engage with the contemporary challenges facing design, the city and society, redefining its vision and its impact on the future.
Image: LC, Plan Obus for Algiers, 1931.