Francelle Cane and Marija Marić: Down to Earth

Francelle Cane and Marija Marić selected as curators of the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale.

The “Down to Earth” project by Francelle Cane and Marija Marić was unanimously selected by the jury to represent the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice.

The project critically unpacks the topic of space mining, raising the issue of the resources of the Earth and Moon soils at different scales. Opening up a discussion on the construction of new frontiers of resource extraction, the displacement of environmental destruction, the project reflects on the neo-colonial imperatives of the current neoliberal economies of mining.

”(…) The wild imaginaries of extraction-driven growth have, quite literally, transcended the boundaries of the Earth. This displacement of mineral exploitation from the exhausted Earth to its ‘invisible’ backstages—celestial bodies, planets, and finally, the Moon itself—calls for an urgent reflection if the impact this shift will have on our understandings of land, resources, and commons, both on the ground, and beyond it. Described as ‘the rising star in the space industry’ and ‘a pioneer in the exploration and utilisation of space resources,’ Luxembourg, itself an economy formerly built on iron mining and steel production, appears as an important starting point for this debate.” —Extract from the “Down to Earth” project by Francelle Cane and Marija Marić.

Francelle Cane is an architect, researcher, and curator based in Luxembourg. She is a doctoral researcher at the Chair of Urban Regeneration, University of Luxembourg. Her practice focuses on transversal and multidisciplinary research activities tied to the question of ruin: she advocates for a critical spatial design approach, concentrating on issues such as late capitalism, spatial policies, or the man-altered landscape. She has curated and designed exhibitions such as The World as a Pavilion. Vjenceslav Richter (2020) and Enter the Modern Landscape (2019), held at Bozar, Brussels. In 2019, she co-curated Dierendonckblancke. PRAXIS which was presented at the XII International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo.

Marija Marić is an architect and researcher based in Luxembourg. She is working as a postdoctoral research associate at the Master in Architecture Programme, University of Luxembourg. In 2020, she obtained her doctoral degree from the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich, with her thesis examining the role of communication strategists in the mediation, design and globalisation of urban space. Her research is organised around the questions of architecture, real estate, media, and the production of the built environment and its imaginaries in the context of global capitalism and the global flow of information.

The Jury
–Michelle Friederici, President of the Order of Architects and Consulting Engineers of Luxembourg
–Cécile Fries-Paiola, Architect, sociologist and lecturer at the National School of Architecture of Nancy
–Claudine Hemmer, Advisor for visual arts and architecture, Ministry of Culture Luxembourg
–Nikolaus Hirsch, Artistic Director of CIVA, Brussels
–Sara Noel Costa de Araujo, Studio SNCDA – Architect and Curator of the Luxembourg Pavilion 2021
–Guittou Muller, Architect and Representative of LUCA
–Hélène Doub, Representative of Kultur|lx

The Ministry of Culture Luxembourg, Commissioner of the Luxembourg Pavilion, has appointed Kultur|lx—Arts Council Luxembourg to organise the selection of the laureate and produce the exhibition, in cooperation with LUCA—Luxembourg Center for Architecture.