Venice Biennale to Feature Video Installation by Davidson College Professors

A group exhibition showcasing the top architecture programs from Princeton to MIT will include a video installation by Davidson College Art and Digital Studies Professors Joelle Dietrick and Owen Mundy and Virginia Tech Professor Paola Zellner Bassett, with sound by Virginia Tech Associate Professor of Music Charles Nichols.

The video installation alternates between archival footage of influential women architects and an experimental animation that uses code to remix extinct plans and green homes from every time zone. It provides a quiet space to consider recent plant conservation and sustainability efforts. 

Dietrick and Mundy’s work shows intertwining organic and geometric forms that span 24 time zones, and Zellner Bassett’s documentary footage celebrates the 40th anniversary of Virginia Tech’s International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA). Her video highlights women architects who were pioneers in sustainable architecture. 

The IAWA was founded in 1985 by Milka T. Bliznakov, Ph.D, as a collaborative effort between the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech and the University Libraries. At the time, Bliznakov sought to rectify the systematic neglect and omission of women’s contributions from the recorded history of architecture. Striving for equity, she endeavored to locate, collect and preserve the professional papers and artifacts of the women that had contributed in any capacity to the built environment worldwide.