2025 Venice Biennale

DUST was invited to exhibit at the Venice Biennale as part of the US Pavilion’s program PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity in recognition of our Wildlife Pavilion project in Patagonia, Arizona. The wildlife pavilion was conceived as a contemporary porch for communal gathering, birdwatching, and ecological stewardship at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds. 

For the Biennale, DUST created the piece Ofrescas: Between Earth and Sky, an installation that will be on view in US Pavilion until November 23, 2025. The work reflects on the landscapes, wildlife, peoples, and stories, and traditions of El Norte—the Spanish name for the borderlands of Mexico and the American Southwest. 

Ofrescas: Between Earth & Sky

For the dreamers:

At some future twilight, grandchildren hear stories of a place between la luz y la sombra.

Beyond the horizon, seven rivers carve through the desert. Islands of stone rise among them, mountains adrift in a sea of dust and time. Here, the earth speaks through vanished lakes, volcanic flows, wind, seeds, knowledge, and the peoples who migrated this land for millennia.

Ruins linger in canyons, in walls of mud that whisper of those who worshipped the sun and stars, in mountains of waste of empires long perished. The scarred earth remembers those who once inhabited the cycles of time, the ways of the wind, and the spirits of this place.

Many moons ago the first porches appeared—not merely shelters but thresholds between earth and sky, known and unknown, ritual and comfort.

The cicada emerges from the cracked earth humming of passage. In this land El Norte, porches are like its husk, marking movement and time, mediating change. Birds, wildlife, seeds, knowledge, and travelers drift between heat and shadow, abundance and drought, on the rhythms of currents unseen.

Beneath mesquite’s dappled light, the afternoon stretches long, cicadas tune their song to the heat, awaiting the pulse of summer rain. Cottonwoods giggle in the autumn wind, their gold-stained leaves spinning to earth. Step through a zaguan into a courtyard, stand in the ribs of a saguaro-shaded portal, and see: the porch gathers voices, summons the evening with fire and food, stops the world in its turning and says—listen.

Ofrescas : Offerings

  1. The Cicada – Emergence
  2. Turqoise – Sun
  3. Mica – Moon
  4. Meteorite – Cosmos
  5. Seeds – Life
  6. Bones – Death
  7. Juniper & Sumac Berries – Abundance
  8. Wa’ato – Porch
  9. Wildlife Pavilion – Porch

The Cicada – Emergence

In Dine, the Cicada1 represents emergence into the new world. A symbol of rebirth, resilience, and transformations. It marks the seasonal shift from hot to hotter, singing through the valleys for rain. It is the characteristic sound and contributes to the desert atmosphere during the summer months. 

Turquoise – The Sun

Dine can be broken up into Di – of the sky and Ne – of the earth. The people and culture represent the in between space. Turquoise2 symbolizes the sun in Dine culture. It has been mined and traded in this region, a significant part of the material culture and trade routes can be traced deep into Mexico, connecting the cultures of this region to the interior civilizations of Mexico’s indigenous history.

Mica – The Moon

Mica 3 is a mineral found in the igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks of the region.  To the Dine, it is symbolic in the moon creation story, and in the Zuni pueblo, large sheets are used as windowpanes, filtering light through its glass like sheets. It represents light, purity, and the celestial realm. 

Meteorite – The Cosmos

This space rock found its way to Earth’s crust. We found it sometime after that on a site visit in the mountains west of Tucson. Carrying what has thought to have been the seeds of life, minerals and elements from the dust and gas of our universe, its high iron content contains magnetic properties and a reminder of the life cycle of stars, as we would not have the iron in our blood, or this meteorite4, were it not for the death of a star. 

Seeds – Life

This spiny seedpod is from the Sacred Datura. Once matured, it will open and release its seeds, dispersed by wind, water, and animal activity. Groups like Native Seeds/SEARCH in Tucson are working to preserve and protect all native seeds that have sustained and evolved in the arid conditions, working towards a rematriation of the desert. Increased aridity, extraction, and destruction to the ecosystems allows for invasive species and plants to change the dynamic of the habitats, making them less resilient to drought, wildfire, and increased temperatures. A corn seed from 700 yrs ago was found in a granary in Glen Canyon before it was flooded to create the water reservoir Lake Powell.  Recently, a Hopi scientist Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson has been employing traditional knowledge and has successfully grown a harvest from the 700-year-old seed. Desert seeds5  have been known to hibernate in their environment, germinating only when the conditions are suitable for the sustained growth and life cycle, like a sentient being the genetic knowledge stored and passed down over time. 

 

Bones – Death

The cycles of life are cut and dry in this region. Through the remains of animals, plants, civilizations, and geological epochs, stories are written in the dirt. Ultimately the final resting place for life’s calcifications, our bones6, return to the dust, providing the desert with the nutrients to further the support of life.

Juniper, Sumac Berries, & Maíz – Abundance

Juniper7, belonging to the plant order Pinales along with the cedar, whose leaves are burned to ash, an additive to the Dine diet for its calcium rich benefits… The Sumac tree, whose berries offer nutrients and natural dyes….The maize variety shared is the red, white, blue corn that once nourished and sustained two continents from South America to North America. Maize is the lifeblood of indigenous America.  

Wa’ ato – “Porch”

A traditional structure8 of the Tohono O’odham people of Southern Arizona. Made of “Y” Mesquite posts and beams, and covered with the bones of the Saguaro cactus or ocotillo plant. The space offers shade, a place to cook, a nucleus for gathering during the hot summer months in the low desert. It is the elemental response to desert dwelling, one of the first American porches mediating the elements between sky and earth. 

Wildlife Pavilion – “Porch”

Designed and Constructed by DUST for the Tucson Bird Alliance (Formerly Tucson Audubon Society). The shade is constructed of White Oak, designed to age with the surrounding trees and habitat, marking the passage of time. The space orients to the natural theater to the south, where Nature Conservancy’s Sonoita-Patagonia Creek Preserve maintains one of the few remaining perennial streams in Arizona. This porch9 is a place for observation of wildlife where the roof diverts water to water harvesting basins that provide native plants for pollinators migrating north from Mexico, including the rare Violet Crowned Hummingbird, making this site one of the northern most reaches of its seasonal migrations. 

The site itself exists as a porch, a transitional space between Tucson and the vast borderland regions to the south.

El Norte : The North

  1. Santa Cruz River
  2. Wildlife Pavilion
  3. International Border
  4. S-cuk Son (Tucson, Arizona USA)
  5. Sky Islands – Madrean Archipelago
  6. El Norte – A Burned Landscape

El Norte : The North

 

Santa Cruz River

The Santa Cruz River has been proposed as an Urban Wildlife Refuge in 202410. Its watershed has been impacted by centuries of overgrazing, mining, and population growth. The lifeblood of the region, it has directed explorers and settlers of this region for over 10,000 years.

Wildlife Pavilion

DUST’s Wildlife Pavilion is located at Tucson Bird Alliance’s (Formerly Tucson Audubon Society) Paton Center for Hummingbirds in Patagonia, Arizona USA.11 The Pavilion sits at the intersection of migrations of the Violet Crowned Hummingbird, the Jaguar, and protected and unprotected habitats in this biodiversity hotspot of the Madrean Archipelago making its way north from Mexico. The site is a laboratory for habitat restoration, watershed management, and recreation.

International Border

The most recent designation of the boundary between two nations and empires. The recently constructed wall along this stretch has disrupted ancient springs,12 threatened imperiled species, and scarred the desert landscape with barren earth, making it ripe for invasive species to propagate along this edge.13 This human made delineation has disrupted migratory flows of humans, animals, and seeds. A divider of many cultures, and a separator of families, this delineator causes death to many families seeking refuge and prospect.

S-cuk Son (Tucson, Arizona USA)

The Tohono O’odham name meaning at the base of the black hills.14 Spanish adapted this name
to Tuk’son, or what is now Tucson Arizona. The settlement along this river is the most continually farmed land in the United States, beginning at least 4,000 years ago.15

Sky Islands – Madrean Archipelago

A stretch of mountain islands unfolding from the Sierra Madres, surrounded by the grassland and scrub desert biomes between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. These Sky Islands are biodiversity hotspots due to their flora and fauna and tinajas of water that have supported life here for thousands of years. This ecoregion spans northwestern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, named for the
55 pine and oak studded mountain islands encompassed within and separated by the desert and grassland seas.16

El Norte – A Burned Landscape

El Norte was coined by Colin Woodard in his book American Nations, representing 11 geopolitical nations developed since colonization. El Norte is described as the oldest, most culturally distinct nation, rooted in the Spanish American Empire. The values of the people who live here are independence, self-sufficiency and hard work.17 Known as the American Southwest to most, El Norte carries more weight, time, and identity of the cultures that have called this region home. This land’s colonial names represent saints and sinners in place of the indigenous names of places that held meaning tied to the landscape. The burned landscape18 is a play on the heat of the desert, the years of over-extraction, over grazing, and diminishing of its most valuable resource, water. It is symbolic of our changing climate and environments with increased aridity and wildfires of the region that will result in more burned landscapes in the future. The current administration’s appetite for minerals and resources in the name of profit is a serious threat to our public spaces, wilderness, cultural artifacts, resources, and overall health of our ecosystems.

Notes:

  1. Cicada was found near the Wildlife Pavilion in the Sonoita-Patagonia Creek watershed in the summer months on a site visit to the Tucson Bird Alliance’s Paton Center for Hummingbirds. The green-hued earth pigment was made from a stone found on private land in Tucson.
  2. Turquoise comes from Cade Hayes’ personal collection, donated here as an offering. The turquoise is a vintage piece and comes from the Tyrone mine near Silver City New Mexico, a turquoise variety known for its vibrant blue hue.
  3. Mica was harvested by Jesus Robles’ daughter in the Santa Catalina Mountains located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona.
  4. This meteorite was found by Cade Hayes and Jesus Robles on a site visit in the mountains west of Tucson.
  5. The seed is a sacred datura seedpod, harvested in the San Rafael Valley grasslands by Jacob Downard. Used for its medicinal and psychotropic properties by indigenous cultures of this region for over 3000 years, it is revered as a sacred visionary plant amongst all cultures around the world that have encountered it. It is also known as “moonflower”, it is primarily pollinated by the hawkmoth, and is a night blooming flower, known to reflect the light of the moon. The sandy brown earth pigment on clay board was made from a stone found on a roadside near the Tucson Mountains, west of Tucson. Links: Native Seeds | SEARCH & https://www.instagram.com/dr._hopi_farmer/
  6. The bone is a part of a coyote spine, found intact in the San Rafael Valley by Cade Hayes. The San Rafael Valley is the headwaters of the Santa Cruz River in Southern Arizona. The dark red earth pigment was made from a stone found near the Guadalupe Mountains in the Texas/New Mexico borderlands.
  7. The juniper and sumac berries were harvested on the Colorado Plateau by Jerrick Tsosie. The maize was obtained at Native Seeds/SEARCH, grown and shared by Tania Verdugo and Torin Hodge. The soft brown earth pigment on clay board was made from a stone found near the Tucson Mountains, west of Tucson.
  8. The drawing of the Wa’ato is drawn digitally, printed on acetate and layered in resin. Representing the first American Porches, a mediation of Earth and Sky. The golden earth pigment on clay board was made from two stones, one found near the Guadalupe Mountains in the Texas/New Mexico borderlands, the other found near Rock Point, Arizona, in an area known as Halgaito by the Navajo community, which translates to White Water Springs.   Link:  https:/www.nps.gov/articles/000/sodn_ramadas-of-the-southwest.html
  9. The drawing of DUST’s Wildlife pavilion. The peach-hued earth pigment on clay board was made from a stone found on private land near Patagonia, AZ.  Links: https://dustarchitects.com/endeavors/audubon-wildlife-pavilion/ & https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/patagonia-sonoita-creek-preserve/
  10. Welcome to the Santa Cruz River – Santa Cruz River Refuge. https://santacruzriver.org/
  11. Paton Center for Hummingbirds ⋆ Tucson Bird Alliance. https://tucsonbirds.org/paton-center/
  12. Maria Parazo Rose, Daniel Penner. “The National Park Service’s Efforts to Protect QuitobaquitoSprings Almost Destroyed It.” High Country News, 24 Jan. 2024, www.hcn.org/articles/the-national-park-services-efforts-to-protect-quitobaquito-springs-almost-destroyed-it/.
  13. “U.S.-Mexico Border Wall.” Sky Island Alliance, https://skyislandalliance.org/our-work/advocacy/us-mexico-border-wall/ . Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
  14. “Tucson Birthplace Open Space Coalition – Tucson Birthplace Open Space Coalition.” TucsonBirthplace Open Space Coalition -, https://tucsonopenspace.org/ . Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
  15. “Mission Garden.” Mission Garden, www.missiongarden.org/. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025.
  16. “The Sky Islands.” Sky Island Alliance, skyislandalliance.org/our-region/the-sky-islands/. Accessed 1Apr. 2025.
  17. Woodard, Colin, 1968-. American Nations: a History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. New York: Viking, 2011

  18. El Norte Topography is made of Spanish Cedar, used for its consistency of grain, texture when burned, lightness and density, and aromatic features. 

 

 

Credits:

DUST Architects consists of Jacob Downard, Cade Hayes, Natalia Zieman Hayes, Jesus Robles, Jerrick Tsosie, and Tania Verdugo. Ofrescas: Between Earth and Sky was a full collaborative effort from the entire DUST team in its idea and fabrication. 

Project & Design lead, & El Norte topography fabrication by Jerrick Tsosie, a junior designer from Rock Point, AZ, on the Navajo Nation, the largest sovereign nation in the contiguous 48 states. 

Resin casts created by Jacob Downard, junior designer from Flagstaff, Arizona. 

Earth pigment paints created from harvested stones, then crushed, mixed with a binder, and applied to clay board by Natalia Zieman Hayes, senior designer and project lead.  

Drawings of Wa’ato and Wildlife Pavilion by Tania Verdugo, a Yaqui Mexican artist and DUST member from Obregon, Sonora, MX.  

Project Narrative by Jesus Robles, along with Cade Hayes, both Founding Principals.  

Special contributors:  

Rawan Alenezi – GIS Mapping, DEM data harvesting, and digital topography model generation 

Mark Bollettieri – Future Future, Editor, Press, and Public Relations. 

Nicole Musto – Italian Translation of project description 

Shannon Smith – Photo documentation of artifacts 

Sheehan Wachter – CNC milling and fabrication of Topography model.