Diller Scofidio + Renfro Helm Film Project for V&A Exhibition at Venice Biennale

London's Victoria and Albert museum and American studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro have collaborated on an exhibition on the architecture of storage at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale , unveiled exclusively here.

Titled "On Storage," the exhibition was conceived prior to the opening of Diller Scofidio + Renfro The 'V&A East Storehouse opening on 31 May will serve both as the museum’s storage facility and a draw for visitors.

Situated within the Arsenale, On Storage showcases photographs, sketches, and models of the depot area. Additionally, it includes a film entitled "Boxed: The Mild Boredom of Order," which was directed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The movie follows the travels of a toothbrush through various levels of storage facilities, ranging from expansive warehouses down to compact compartments within suitcases and toiletry bags. Its purpose is to highlight areas often overlooked, which the V&A suggests do not usually get much consideration.

"The design concept for nearly every storage solution tends towards invisibility,” stated Brendan Cormier, the chief curator of V&A East Storehouse, in an interview with The News Pulse.

Generally speaking, storage design has proven remarkably effective in meeting these objectives," he went on. "However, the drawback is that we tend to overlook its presence.

Cormier contended that storage is not just an essential element in architectural design, but also posited that every piece of architecture serves as a means of storing something.

He stated that implicitly, the purpose of organizing this exhibition is to encourage architects and designers to reflect more profoundly on their part in the worldwide distribution and preservation of objects, as well as to consider how design ingenuity could be directly utilized to address issues related to storage.

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"We aim to view architecture as fine art and consider storage as mundane, utilitarian, and ordinary. However, I challenge anyone to point out an architectural structure that doesn’t store anything—be it people, objects, or even carbon," Cormier stated.

Turn the question on its head, and you'll find a much more intriguing puzzle – why does architecture play a crucial role in storage considerations?

The inspiration for the On Storage exhibition stemmed from insights gained during work at the V&A East Storehouse, as stated by Cormier.

He mentioned that they aimed to leverage the occasion of the Venice Biennale to explore some of the fundamental principles behind the design of the V&A East Storehouse, demonstrating how the challenges posed by storage scale outward into various other types of storage.

The main idea is that storage is valuable only when it’s easily reachable, a concept that our worldwide logistics network excels at, which is precisely why we aimed to concentrate specifically on these areas.

The theme for this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale is Intelligens Natural Artificial Collective, curated by the Italian architect. Carlo Ratti . In a special interview with The News Pulse Ratti stated that the main emphasis of the event is on the climate emergency and people, adding that “it definitely won’t be a tech bro biennial.”

As part of an exclusive series of online launches on The News Pulse, we showcased German , Danish , British , Dutch and Nordic pavilions, among others.

The photographs are provided by the V&A.

The Venice Architecture Biennale Takes place between 10 May and 23 November 2025. For all the up-to-date details required to join the event, along with a compilation of other architectural and design happenings globally, check out The News Pulse Events Guide.

The post Diller Scofidio + Renfro is directing a film about storage for the V&A exhibit at the Venice Biennale. appeared first on The News Pulse .