A proposal developed by the EvoAdapta group at the University of Cantabria advocates at the Venice Biennale grounding the architecture of the future in the knowledge of past human groups.
A team of researchers in Prehistory, paleoart and science communication bursts onto the international stage at the Venice Biennale 2025 with Out of the Cave, a project that connects ancestral knowledge with the challenges of contemporary architecture. United by the European project SUBSILIENCE, carried out within the EvoAdapta Group at the University of Cantabria, these experts reflect on how the housing strategies of Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens in the face of climatic and environmental change can inspire sustainable solutions for the future of architecture.
Paleoartist Dr. Gabriela Amorós (University of Murcia) and science-communication specialist Dr. Federica Crivellaro (Italy) join Dr. Ana B. Marín-Arroyo — principal investigator of the ERC project SUBSILIENCE — to offer, through a series of images, a look into the past and into the living places of early humans, with a particular nod to the Aitzbitarte III cave in Rentería, Gipuzkoa. This site, excavated as part of the European project, has revealed occupation by Neanderthal groups and an extensive, rich record of early Homo sapiens in the northern area of the Iberian Peninsula.
Out of the Cave fuses science, art and memory to design urgent adaptation strategies and to rethink our relationship with nature from the very origins of our evolutionary history. “Taking part in the Venice Biennale is a unique opportunity to show that Prehistory can also be part of the global dialogue on sustainability and resilience. Our aim is to bring a scientific, but also deeply human, perspective on how we have inhabited and transformed our environment throughout our history on this planet,” emphasizes Dr. Ana B. Marín-Arroyo.
VENICE BIENNALE 2025
From 10 May to 23 November, Venice will host the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Biennale, one of the world’s most influential cultural events. Under the motto “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.” and curated by architect and engineer Carlo Ratti, this edition invites a rethinking of how we build and inhabit the planet in the context of the climate crisis. In times of adaptation, Ratti argues that architecture must rise to meet the new climatic, technological and social challenges already underway. It is about applying intelligence, empathy and our capacity to thrive amid uncertainty.
The exhibition will bring together professionals from multiple disciplines to explore architectural solutions that are not only technologically innovative but also deeply human and sustainable. Architecture can no longer be conceived in isolation: it must draw on all forms of intelligence — natural, artificial and collective — and open a dialogue across generations and fields of knowledge, from the exact sciences to the arts. The 2025 Biennale thus shapes up as a space for collective reflection, where the past, present and future intertwine to imagine better ways of living in a world that demands an urgent course correction.
OUT OF THE CAVE
Out of the Cave, selected from more than a thousand international proposals for the Venice Biennale 2025 — and one of the few Spanish entries — is an interdisciplinary project that invites a look to the past as a source of solutions to the climate crisis. “Our proposal seeks to build bridges between knowledge of Prehistory and contemporary challenges,” explains Dr. Ana B. Marín-Arroyo, project director and Professor of Prehistory at the University of Cantabria. Inspired by Plato’s allegory of the cave, the work shows how archaeological remains left by human groups in caves — bones, tools, fossilized pollen and ancient DNA — make it possible to reconstruct vanished ecosystems and reveal how early humans diversified their diets and ways of life to survive under extreme conditions. “Out of the Cave explores how food, culture, the environment and sustainability have always been deeply interconnected,” adds Marín-Arroyo, stressing that current industrial systems have distanced us from nature and threaten biodiversity.
