What’s the idea of 2038?

The idea of 2038 is simple: together we look back from the future, to try and understand how we made it through to a state of NEW SERENITY.

In a series of films, 2038 explores the vision of a somewhat better future. It starts with the fictional plot of INTERRAIL, a film set in 2038 about two young adults who visit the Venice of their childhood, giving us a glimpse into how the future feels.  

The history channels help us better understand this fictional world. In documentary-like formats, experts are given a voice. They speak to us from a future perspective, about how their alternative models became viable systemic solutions. 

2038 is also a growing team of international experts from various disciplines: Architecture & Art, Ecology & Economy, Philosophy & Politics, Technology & Science. The world of 2038 is grounded through their applied knowledge. 

Fiction and fact meet in the German Pavilion of this year's architecture biennale. To open the discussion to a wider global audience that cannot or never could travel to Venice, the project brings the story of 2038 online. 

The virtual pavilion is a series of formats that will be explored during the six-month exhibition period. Central to it is the open-source Cloud Pavilion created with MOZ://A HUBS, which allows people from all over the world to meet in, talk about, and explore 2038. 

Although we like the idea of meeting people from all over the world online, we also love Venice. Thus, the virtual pavilion's digital formats will be supplemented by a series of in-person events throughout the summer, giving us a reason to visit the German pavilion once again.

Following this decentralized approach, the official publication of the German pavilion is the 2038 issue of Arts of the Working Class, a multi-lingual, bi-monthly street journal. Released in June 2020, the first edition brought the (his)story of 2038 to the streets of the world.

All these fragments make up 2038 and they have one thing in common: they try to understand the story of a future as a democratic tool for writing itself. Thus, 2038 does not end with the Biennale, but is only the beginning of a history that today we call our future.