We were honored to collaborate with artist–architect Matthew Mazzotta at the 2025 Venice Biennale, designing and building a Flipbook Cabinet with six mechanical flipbooks that animated his community-based projects “Open House” and “Storefront Theater.”

The installation featured two large flipbooks and four smaller flipbooks, all designed to be completely self-powered. One of the greatest challenges we faced was creating kinetic displays that could run without electricity or batteries, as the exhibit hall did not allow external power sources. Our solution: hand-cranked mechanisms that invited the public to generate the motion themselves.

When visitors turned the cranks, the flipbooks came to life—bringing Mazzotta’s architectural storytelling into motion and directly engaging audiences in the act of participation. This hands-on interaction reflects Matthew’s broader practice of building community-specific projects that integrate civic participation and social engagement.

We traveled to Venice to install the pieces on-site, and the project is currently on view in the American Pavilion through November 2025.