The Board of La Biennale di Venezia, upon the recommendation of President Paolo Baratta, appointed Hashim Sarkis as Director of the Architecture Sector, with the specific task of curating the 17th International Architecture Exhibition to be held in 2020. Sarkis is the principal architect of Hashim Sarkis Studios (HSS), established in 1998 with offices in Boston and Beirut, and Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 2015. He is the author and editor of several books and articles on modern architecture history and theory, including Circa 1958, Lebanon in the Projects and Plans of Constantinos Doxiadis (Beirut: Dar Annahar, 2003); or Le Corbusier's Venice Hospital (Munich: Prestel, 2001).

“The world is putting new challenges in front of architecture - stated Sarkis. I look forward to working with participating architects from around the world to imagine together how we are going to rise to these challenges. Thank you President Baratta and La Biennale di Venezia team for providing architecture this important platform. I am both honored and humbled”...