IN THE NEWS / Female architect takes lead at Venice exhibition

Michinobu Yanagisawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

VENICE--Despite being one of the world's most high-profile architects, Kazuyo Sejima is humble about her role in directing the Venice Biennale's International Architecture Exhibition. "It's just an extension of my regular activities," she said.

Sejima, 53, is the first Japanese and first female curator of the world's premier modern architecture exhibition, which opened Sunday.

Unlike most curators, Sejima has not given exhibitors an overall theme to follow, telling them to express their skills freely. She has dedicated herself to backstage tasks such as apportioning exhibition space and deciding the exhibition's tour route.

"If I had decided everything by myself, [the exhibition] would be boring," she said.

A native of Ibaraki Prefecture, Sejima began exhibiting her talents in the 1990s in work that often featured white and transparent themes. This year she received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, known as architecture's Nobel Prize, becoming the fourth Japanese to win the award. Sejima designed an annex of the Louvre Museum in Paris that is currently under construction.

"My work isn't about speaking or writing," she said. "I just want to keep designing buildings that both bring life to environments and people, and are also brought to life by them."