Pavilion designed by Rolex at the International Architecture Exhibition. photos: Rolex
Rolex has supported artistic heritage for over 50 years, partnering with some of the world’s most talented artists and leading cultural institutions.
Through the Rolex Perpetual Arts Initiative, a broad portfolio of arts that includes endeavours related to music, architecture, cinema and the Rolex mentoring programme, the brand confirms its long-term commitment to global culture.
Creating a link between the past, present and future, Rolex has supported artistic excellence and the transmission of knowledge to future generations, making a lasting contribution to culture worldwide.
Architecture is an area where a wide range of disciplines converge, combining artistic vision and technical excellence.
As it is with watchmaking, in architecture, the strength of the design reflects a passion for precision, performance and aesthetics.
With an acute understanding of the harmony between form and function, Rolex has naturally forged close ties with the renowned architects who have been commissioned to design its own buildings around the world.
Since 2014, the brand has served as Exclusive Partner and Official Timepiece of the Biennale Architettura, highlighting the importance of architecture in our lives, as well as the company’s commitment to excellence in design and sustainability.
The Lititz Watch Technicum, Rolex’s watchmaking school in Pennsylvania in the United States.
The brand also supports the great architects of tomorrow through the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative, which pairs young artists with masters in their disciplines for a period of one-on-one mentoring and creative collaboration.
Rolex at the Biennale Architettura 2023
For the fifth time, Rolex will serve as Exclusive Partner and Official Timepiece of the International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia – the world’s premier architectural forum for new ideas that launched on May 20 and runs until Nov 26, 2023.
The 18th biennial event, themed “The Laboratory of the Future”, is curated by Ghanaian-Scottish academic and educator Lesley Lokko, who is focusing the Biennale on Africa for the first time.
There are nearly 100 contributors to the six-part exhibition, and over half are African and Diasporan practitioners whose work engages directly with the Biennale theme and commitment to carbon neutrality.
These include the topics of decolonisation and decarbonisation, leading to a more environmentally friendly, sustainable future.
“Africa is the laboratory of the future,” says Lokko. “We envisage our exhibition as a laboratory where architects and practitioners across an expanded field of creative disciplines draw out examples from their contemporary practices that chart a path for the audience.”
Rolex is also supporting Carnival, a six-month-long cycle of events, lectures, panel discussions, films and performances that explore the themes of the Biennale Architettura 2023, thereby helping to create stronger ties between architects and the public.
David Adjaye (left), Mentor with Mariam Kamara, Protegee inarchitecture, working on their project at Atelier Masomi.
A unique exhibition
Over the years, the Rolex Pavilion in the Giardini has presented exhibitions featuring the brand’s links with world-leading architects for its own buildings and the transmission of knowledge to the architects of tomorrow.
This year the display features three sections: Materials, craft and artisans; Rolex Australia – A sustainable future for an art deco building; and Retrospective of mentors and proteges in architecture.
Materials, craft and artisans
The exhibition which is at the core of the Pavilion’s offerings this year is a section which highlights the materials employed by Rolex in its boutiques worldwide.
Here, visitors will enjoy a sensory experience of the Rolex universe, suffused through the excellence of materials that range from marble, travertine, stucco and glass that are largely manufactured in Italy, near Venice.
Films feature how these materials are fashioned into surfaces and objects of great beauty by skilled craftsmen, and signature features of Rolex watch models provide the overall interior design inspiration for the brand.
These include the fluted bezel and the Cyclops lens, which magnifies the date on many Oyster models.
Rolex Australia – A sustainable future for an art deco building
The sensitive refurbishment of Melbourne’s Centenary Hall, which houses Rolex Australia, was carried out by architect Peter Miglis of Woods Bagot, who has restored the heritage-listed, art deco building to its former glory while applying a gold standard of sustainability. Each level boasts a distinctive personality that references Rolex – the watch and the craft – without compromising the aesthetic integrity of the building’s richly detailed interiors and facade.
Administrative staff and watchmakers, who require dust-free workplaces, are brought together sympathetically under one roof, in a building which echoes the ongoing pursuit of sustainable architecture, continuous innovation, precision and the best use of form and space.
Retrospective of mentors and proteges in architectureIn a retrospective and celebration of the initiative’s 20-year anniversary, there is a display featuring the architecture mentors and proteges who have taken part in the programme over the years.
In architecture, six mentors and six proteges from around the world have succeeded in a rewarding collaboration that has provided new dimensions, insights and affinity.
Over the years, the following mentors and proteges’ work has been showcased at the Biennale Architettura:
- Alvaro Siza, Portugal, and Sahel Alhiyari, Jordan, 2002–2003
- Kazuyo Sejima, Japan, and Yang Zhao, China, 2012–2013
- Peter Zumthor, Switzerland, and Gloria Cabral, Paraguay, 2014–2015
- Sir David Chipperfield, United Kingdom, and Simon Kretz, Switzerland, 2016–2017
- Sir David Adjaye OM OBE, Ghana/United Kingdom, and Mariam Issoufou Kamara, Niger, 2018–2019
- Anne Lacaton, France, and Arine Aprahamian, Lebanon, 2023–2024
Protege, Jordanese architect Sahel Al-Hiyari (left) meeting the mentor,Alvaro Siza in his office in Porto.
Rolex Arts community at the Biennale
Several individuals whom Rolex has championed through the mentoring and the Rolex Awards for Enterprise programmes are playing essential roles at the event.
Among those from the Rolex family participating in Force Majeure, part of the curator’s section at the Giardini’s Central Pavilion, are former mentor Ghanaian-British Sir David Adjaye OM OBE (Adjaye Associates) and his protegee, Niger-born Mariam Issoufou Kamara (atelier masomi), as well as Rolex Awards for Enterprise jury member Diebedo Francis Kere (Kere Architecture) from Burkina Faso.
Participating in the curator’s complementary Arsenale section, Dangerous Liaisons, are two Rolex arts fellows – former proteges – visual arts fellow Sammy Baloji, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, as a principal of Twenty Nine Studio and along with architecture fellow, Paraguayan Gloria Cabral, who are united by strong environmental and social concerns.
Their work together was made possible through the mentoring programme’s collaboration fund that aims to support innovative and cross-disciplinary artistic endeavours among the Rolex arts fellows.
