TBA21–Academy’s public program at Ocean Space encourages the creation of transformative visions for the future nurtured through participatory practices and experiences. The program is conceived and developed alongside each exhibition on view at Ocean Space in Venice from April to October, applying TBA21–Academy’s practice of disseminating local ecological knowledge through cultural programming. Our aim is to raise environmental awareness and support regenerative ways of living by developing a community of care and concern around bodies of water, starting from the Venice Lagoon. The majority of this year’s public program flows from the three-year curatorial fellowship program The Current III Mediterraneans: Thus waves come in pairs (after Etel Adnan), 2021–2023, led by Barbara Casavecchia. Visitors will be able to experience the results of the three-year research commitment through the exhibition Thus waves come in pairs, curated by Barbara Casavecchia, comprising two new commissions at Ocean Space in Venice — Sempre il mare, uomo libero, amerai! (Free man, you’ll love the ocean endlessly!) by Simone Fattal and Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas by Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano.

TBA21’s ongoing commitment to raising questions around food sovereignty and the food industry’s ecological impact, which we have explored through last year’s research program Convivial Tables, is strengthened in this year’s collaboration with the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 in FOODSCAPES, curated by Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa and Manuel Ocaña. In shared sessions, co-produced with TBA21–Academy at Ocean Space, FOODSCAPES will invite experts and architects to discuss ecosystemic implications of the digestion, production, distribution, foundation, and consumption of food and the role that architecture can play in implementing a more resilient agri-food model.