Standing within the space that Sverre Fehn created in 1962 for the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, we were quietly awed. Soft, filtered light passes gently between the deep precast concrete roof beams, which seem to hover and cascade gently around the trunks of three towering plane trees. It’s a space that holds both permanence and lightness — grounded, yet open — and it’s beautiful to experience.

When we visited, the 2025 exhibition Industry Muscle occupied the pavilion with restraint. Just four compact installations animated the vast interior, including a wall of steel with a single continous weld line, a car pierced by concrete columns, and a raw concrete and steel shelter. One of the glazed elevations had been tagged with a single graffiti scrawl. Together, these elements sought to re-frame fossil-fuel culture and architecture through the lens of the trans body — a powerful provocation delivered with quiet intensity. At other times, the space also hosts performance pieces, adding a temporal layer to the ongoing dialogue.

The Modernist pavilion itself remains a study in contrasts: heavy concrete and delicate balance, geometry and nature. Fehn’s design respects the site as he found it — preserving trees and paths, opening orthogonal forms out into the surrounding park. Although very much of its time, it’s an architecture that holds a sense of permanence and clarity in form — a space that continues to resonate and make room for many messages.