The curator of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale on Thursday denounced Italy’s denial of visas to three Ghanaian men who worked with her on the main exhibition giving voice to Africans and the African diaspora.
Lesley Lokko, a Scottish-Ghanaian who is the first African to curate the architectural Biennale, told a press conference that the Italian embassy in Ghana cited “reasonable doubts” about the applicants’ intentions to leave Italy when the visa expires.
However, she said, the embassy gave no explanation for its decision.
“For almost the first time in my life, words fail me,” she said.
The Biennale, which opens on Saturday, features a preponderance of participants from Africa or the African diaspora under the title “The Laboratory of the Future,” exploring the themes of decolonization and decarbonization.
Lokko said it was not the first time she had been confronted with refused entry by Western countries.
“It has happened
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