An immeasurable loss continues to reverberate across the world. Those of us incredibly fortunate to work with the great Jay Levenson and those who have encountered him, be it in Bogota or a rooftop in Bombay, Dakar or Dhaka, are heartbroken and confounded of his recent passing. He was a mentor, a guide, a friend, a confidante, a gatherer, a storyteller without equal, a diplomatic attaché, a connoisseur of all foods, an inescapable force within and outside MoMA. I had the great honor to imagine and help plan extraordinarily detailed trips and seminars and books across geographies with him—returning often to places and people that he loved like India. And his first ventures to Senegal and Colombia. That he was a wanderer with great purpose—to learn— is an understatement.
And like an echo, his indelible generosity, kindness and sardonic wit will forever reverberate from ocean to ocean and back again. We will always be in your light and all-too-swift shadow, dear Jay.
Today we celebrate the eve of Diwali as the 17th and final day of Bvlgari’s Serpenti Infinito at @nmacc.india in Mumbai. Scores of individuals gave their energies, time, and work to make this exhibition happen. But I think we must first acknowledge the tremendous efforts by this team of exemplary art handlers from #masterartlogistics who worked tirelessly, often through the night, to accomplish what was seen and felt over the past 17 days and throughout the exhibition: Joy and Wonder.
I am incredibly grateful and humbled by each one of these gentlemen whose careful strategies for installing works was always met with humor, a smile and kind attention. They solved problems that no one else could. They patiently and unselfishly worked with myself, Sanchari Mukherjee and Dr. Sataskhi Sinha to ensure that each work received the attention it deserved. If you wish to see what “care” and camaraderie looks like, look no further.
With so many fairs, biennales, and exhibitions happening throughout the world today, rarely do we see those individuals whose concentrated thinking on the fly and intense labor make curatorial ideas flourish. They are all too rarely even affirmed. Thank You for your individual and collective generosity @masterartlogistics@bvlgari@naturemorte_india #serpentiinfinito
How do you describe a revolution?
For the past month, a group of us have been fortunate to be part of one of the more profound shifts in thinking, forming, and imagining the world today. The Nomadic African Studio of the African Futures Institute @african_futures_institute is the first time I felt that a space of learning had been created for just that—seeing oneself and each other anew.
We were not “teaching” per se, but with our exceptional participants and colleagues, joined together as wayfarers seeking new languages, spaces, sounds, flows to resonate across a continent and beyond. This is love.
So proud of every person in Unit 5 and everyone that has been part of the first Nomadic African Studio #nomadicafricanstudio. More images coming soon! Thanks to Aziza Chaouni @azizachaouniprojects as my co-tutor for her unwavering belief in the power of the Fès Medina.
Sincere gratitude to Patti Anahory @patti_anahory , Ana Monrabel-Cook @ana_monrabel_cook , and Nyambura Mbugua @afroswaggins keeping us all unified, focused, fed, comforted, trusted, grounded.
And profound thanks and respect to Lesley Lokko @lesleylokko for her unwavering vision and clarity about how the continent of Africa will no doubt shape our collective futures. Onwards!
Beyti Beytak, one of two exhibitions of the first official pavilion(s) of Qatar at the 19th international Architecture Exhibition @labiennale , is an exploration of hospitality as a spatial, cultural, and social form.
Sharing the works of more than 30 modern and contemporary architects across Middle East/West Asia, North Africa, South Asia (MENASA), the exhibition centers on the extraordinary thinking of Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy and Pakistani architect-activist Yasmeen Lari.
The exhibitions have been co-curated by Aurélien Lemonier and myself with Virgile Alexandre, alongside the vision and dedication of @arter , @cookies_architecture , and @gaggeroworks . We are grateful to Her Excellency @almayassabnthamad for her unmatched support of architecture and art.
May 10-November 23, 2025
@palazzofranchetti
Mom, celebrating the legacy of another Mom, with many Mom’s in attendance @hiyarapitiya_house_kandy #srilanka #mothersday Happy Mother’s Day past, present and future!
Fortunate to have visited the second edition of the @sharjaharchitecture Triennial elegantly curated by @tosin.oshinowo Tosin Oshinowo, with Matthew Maganga @mattmaganga , Suha Hasan, Julie Bonzon, and Myles Igwe. The Triennial quietly yet insistently points to how beauty can be manifest in the overlooked, the tossed aside, the forgotten, the leftover as materialist territories of encounter. How and why we build is essential to understanding our vexed relationships with the creation and destruction of worlds. Each of the projects across all of the sites and incumbent geographies allows for one to first step into a space and then imagine the trajectories of ideas and implications that flourish across territories today. As we take a closer look at ourselves, our actions and their engineering, it is (hopefully) possible to find beauty amidst all of the catastrophes.
Youssef Agbo-ola @olaniyi.studio
Sumayya Dabbagh @dabbagharchitects_
Olalekan Jeyifous @kidcadaver
Cave Bureau / Adrian Pepe @cave_bureau@adrian_pepe
Limbo Accra @limboaccra
Nfemi Marcus-Bello @nmbello1
Buzigahill @buzigahill.official
Many thanks to @travellingsahil #sharjah #uae
Modern Sri Lankan textiles, when understood as art, as evocations of collaborative beauty, embody historical and political narratives long and expressive. Our exhibition at the Barefoot Loft Gallery—Imagining New Natures—is the first of its kind: bringing together the principal artists who contributed to the indefatigable vision of Ena de Silva. De Silva’s work with batik regenerated a form that reshaped South Asian architecture, fashion, and design for decades. Here the unmatched works of Hema Dharmasena, Padmini Jayasinghe, Anil Gamini Jayasuriya, Laki Senanayake, and Ismeth Raheem amplify a vision that is holistic, encompassing the possibility of new worlds, natures and ecologies during the post-independence period of the island and its peoples. Thank you to @aluwihareheritagecentre@barefootceylon@barefootgallery #amilademel, @mansisrao and @channadas for your dedication to ensuring the legacy of Ena de Silva’s significance in Sri Lanka and across oceans. This is just the beginning. #lakisenanyake #anilgaminijayasuriya #ismethraheem #hemadharmasena #padminijayasinghe Thanks to @thiliniper@roshan.rajapaksha and all contributors—open until 17 November #moderntextiles #srilanka #enadesilva #color #batik
Charles Correa and Mahendra Raj with Dr Rasu Vakil and Fred Taylor’s stunning Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium (1959-66) in central Ahmedabad has been slated for demolition to make way for a “state-of-the-art facility”. Modernist (architectural) heritage in India has been targeted, yet again, not for the value of transformational spaces and ideas, or the elevation and function of individual and collective experiences, but for potential graft and the image of an improbable architecture. More erasure for profit. #modernism #ahmedabad #charlescorrea #mahendraraj #india #indianarchitecture
One of the most exquisite museums—the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia—where you never wish to leave. In 1953, Carlo Scarpa was invited to Palermo to rehabilitate the rooms of the Palazzo Abatellis. His interventions transform works and spaces with subtle grandeur. Every detail is a moment through which one is able to comprehend the hands and eyes of both the artists and designer; where beauty is felt, absorbed and carried with you; where wonder eclipses narrative and instead proves revelatory and magic. A dreamworld. #carloscarpa #palazzoabatellis #palermo
The incisive exhibition of the great Yasmeen Lari, architect, conservationist, and thinker recently concluded in Vienna. Having had the fortune to spend time in her Karachi living and dining rooms engaged in conversation with both she and her husband Suhail Zaheer Lari (who sadly passed in 2020 due to covid), I recognize her truth-telling in the exhibition as an homage and a fervent call for increased awareness of the spatial and material consequences of ecological and humanitarian conditions impacting architecture and urbanism at all scales today. Her extraordinary work not only speaks to a lifetime devoted to Pakistan and the Sindh, Yasmeen rightly calls for a renewed examination of who we are as humans when faced with unceasing calamity and catastrophe throughout the world. How can we “solve” problems specific to architecture when we can’t “solve” ourselves? Mubarak baad and Shabaash to the curators Angelika Fitz (@fitzangelika ), Elke Krasny (@elkekrasny ) and Marvi Mazhar (#marvimazhar) and scenographer @maringorama
The outpouring of affection for and palpable loss felt by so many upon news of Jean-Louis Cohen’s untimely passing illustrates just what an immense force of intellectual generosity and impeccable wit that he possessed without fail. His all-knowing smile bestowed curiosity, joy and care at the same time. He is one of the Greats whose presence will always be remembered; whose knowledge exceeds that of the architecture about which he thought and imagined. A rarity today that can not be quantified.
I had the immense privilege to meet Jean-Louis regularly for lunch over these past years, always with white wine at the table, always discussing new exhibitions we were going to propose, and the feeling that we should be recording our conversations (except for the ready gossip). His stories transited the planet and time zones and chronologies and languages and spaces with an (anti) gravity that always gave way to immense wonder on my behalf and perhaps, if even for a moment, the possibility for him as well. #jeanlouiscohen #casablanca
