VENICE.- The Kingdom of Morocco announced its participation in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, taking place from May to November 2025. This presence marks a significant opportunity to showcase Morocco’s rich architectural heritage and the innovation of the Moroccan artistic scene on the international stage.

For the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Morocco will present an exhibition titled "Materiae Palimpsest" at the Artiglierie, in the Venice Biennale Arsenale. Conceived by the talented Moroccan architects Khalil Morad El Ghilali and El Mehdi Belyasmine, this project explores the theme of "earth architecture" by combining traditional Moroccan craftsmanship with contemporary digital technologies.

The Moroccan exhibition will offer an immersive experience in the art of earth construction, emphasizing its durability, flexibility, and intrinsic beauty. This exhibition highlights how utilizing earth as a local and renewable material embodies principles of a closed-loop system, minimizing waste and maximizing resource utility across various scales. Through this multiscalar approach, the pavilion will explore the transmission of knowledge and the principles of the circular economy.

Materiae Palimpsest aims to redefine the perception of collective intelligence in the act of building by highlighting the resilience and potential of Moroccan architecture in the face of current ecological and social challenges. Drawing inspiration from Morocco’s millennia-old earth architecture, bearing ingenious construction techniques, which have evolved over time to suit the local context, the architects explore how these ancient practices can be adapted for the contemporary world and celebrate the sustainable potential of earth architecture as a building material.

Through shared wisdom inherent in earth construction techniques, passed down through generations, the project honours traditions that are deeply embedded in Morocco’s cultural fabric. The pavilion foregrounds earth architecture as an expression of Moroccan identity shaped by its diverse geography and cultural memory. By connecting material and method to Morocco’s sense of place, the exhibition affirms how built environments preserve deep-rooted traditions while offering adaptable, sustainable solutions for the future.

By creating a dialogue between local artisans, custodians of traditional techniques, and architects and engineers using cutting-edge tools, the exhibition will propose how this agglomeration of knowledge has the potential to realise new architectural forms - ones that preserve and evolve traditional methods and draw on the opportunities presented by new technologies.

Visitors to the Moroccan Pavilion will encounter a visceral experience of earth’s materiality, from tactile installations that invite visitors to touch and feel the different textures of earth to digital projections that will bring these artisanal techniques to life. In the centre of the pavilion holograms will showcase two artisans, illustrating their ancestral gestures and the tools and materials with which they work. The pavilion will also feature the work of Moroccan artist, Soumiya Jalal, whose textile creations will adorn the walls of the pavilion.

In essence, "Materiae Palimpsest" promises to be a fascinating and relevant exploration of Moroccan earth architecture, uniting the richness of its past with the promise of its future through the contribution of sustainable technologies. It is an invitation to rethink our relationship with building materials and to imagine more sustainable and locally rooted construction methods.

Morocco's participation in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia is the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication and the Ministry of National Planning, Urban Development, Housing and Urban Policy. It demonstrates the Kingdom's commitment to supporting and promoting its creative talents on the international stage.