Venice returns to full force as the Venice Biennale approaches, with national pavilions beginning to reveal their programs. From site-specific works created in real time to solo presentations and expansive group exhibitions exploring ideas of home, identity, and transformation, this year’s lineup reflects a shifting global landscape. For those navigating the pavilions, here’s an early look at ten exhibitions to know—each offering a distinct perspective on where contemporary art is heading.
Austrian Pavilion
Florentina Holzinger: SeaWorld Venice
Curated by Nora-Swantje Almes.
Florentina Holzinger, “SANCTA,” 2024, © Mathias Baus, Courtesy of Opera Stuttgart.
For the Austrian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, Florentina Holzinger presents “SEAWORLD VENICE, an expansive, interdisciplinary project featuring a live installation and performances. Centered on water as both material and metaphor, the work explores the body as a site where nature, technology, and power structures collide. Inside the pavilion, a permanent installation anchors visceral, choreographed actions, while a series of site-specific performances will be presented in the city and its lagoon. Florentina Holzinger combines extreme physicality with theatrical precision to probe the limits of corporeal agency. Working across dance, performance, opera, and theatre, and critically engaging with their histories, the artist blends legitimised ‘high’ culture with pop and countercultural currents, confronting systems of control, vulnerability, and transformation. By activating the city itself, “SEAWORLD VENICE” invites viewers into immersive encounters that reflect on ecological urgency and the shifting boundaries between human and environment.
What we love: The collision of performance and installation, where the body becomes the site of tension between nature, technology, and control.
Florentina Holzinger: SeaWorld Venice
May 9–November 22, 2026
India Pavilion
Alwar Balasubramaniam, Sumakshi Singh, Ranjani Shettar, Asim Waqif, Skarma Sonam Tashi: Geographies of Distance: remembering home
Curated by Dr. Amin Jaffer.
Ranjani Shettar, courtesy of Talwar Gallery.
Marking its return to the Venice Biennale for the first time since 2019, the India Pavilion presents “Geographies of Distance: remembering home,” a group exhibition exploring how ideas of home shift across time, movement, and memory. Bringing together five artists working with organic and traditional materials, the exhibition reflects a nation in transformation—where rapid urban growth and a global diaspora reshape relationships to place. Across sculpture, installation, and immersive environments, “home” emerges as a carefully sustained, evolving construct: part ritual, part mythology, part emotional imprint. Extending beyond the pavilion through performances across Venice, the project invites reflection on belonging, displacement, and cultural continuity, positioning India’s contemporary artistic voice within a broader global dialogue.
What we love: Each artist’s distinct take on “home,” reflecting India’s layered cultural landscape while reshaping its narrative on a global stage.
Alwar Balasubramaniam, Sumakshi Singh, Ranjani Shettar, Asim Waqif, Skarma Sonam Tashi: Geographies of Distance: remembering home
May 9–November 22, 2026
Uzbekistan Pavilion
Jahongir Bobokulov, Zi Kakhramonova, Aygul Sarsen, Zulfiya Spowart, Xin Liu, A.A. Murakami, Nguyen Phuong Linh: The Aural Sea
Curated by Aziza Izamova, Thái Hà, Sophie Mayuko Arni, Nico Sun, and Kamila Mukhitdinova.
Nguyen Phuong Linh, “Tongue,” 2021, UV-print on PVC sheet, 210 x 80cm © Nguyen Phuong Linh, Courtesy of the artist.
For the Uzbekistan Pavilion, “The Aural Sea” turns to the ecological and cultural legacy of the Aral Sea, using mythmaking and storytelling to navigate environmental transformation. Bringing together an intergenerational group of artists working across installation, textiles, and interactive forms, the exhibition approaches the Aral not simply as a site of loss, but as a living archive of memory and knowledge. Sound, narrative, and speculative imagination guide the pavilion’s inquiry, asking what it means to listen to a landscape shaped by disappearance and change. Rooted in both local histories and global perspectives, the project positions imagination as a tool for resilience—offering new ways to understand ecological futures and collective memory.
What we love: An intergenerational dialogue shaped by the landscape, where rooted narratives and global dialogue converge through craft and storytelling.
Jahongir Bobokulov, Zi Kakhramonova, Aygul Sarsen, Zulfiya Spowart, Xin Liu, A.A. Murakami, Nguyen Phuong Linh: The Aural Sea
May 9–November 22, 2026
Nordic Countries Pavilion (Finland, Norway, Sweden)
Klara Kristalova, Benjamin Orlow, Tori Wrånes: How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?
Curated by Anna Mustonen.
Benjamin Orlow, “Ritual City,” 2023. Photo by Jussi Tiainen.
At the Nordic Countries Pavilion, Klara Kristalova, Benjamin Orlow, and Tori Wrånes transform Sverre Fehn’s iconic structure into a mythic, immersive landscape shaped by cycles of decay, renewal, and transformation. Drawing on Nordic folklore and broader global narratives, the exhibition unfolds through interconnected installations that merge human, animal, and natural forms, creating an evolving environment where sculpture, sound, and performance converge. Moving between the monumental and the intimate, the works explore vulnerability, coexistence, and the limits of shared space in an increasingly unstable world. Through myth as both language and lens, the pavilion invites visitors to reflect on interconnectedness—between bodies, environments, and belief systems—within a fragile, shifting ecology.
What we love: Each artist’s take on Nordic folklore—something deeply intimate that shapes identity from adolescence onward, and in turn, entire cultures.
Klara Kristalova, Benjamin Orlow, Tori Wrånes: How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?
May 9–November 22, 2026
National Pavilion of Syria
Sara Shamma: The Tower Tomb of Palmyra
Curated by Yuko Hasegawa.
Sara Shamma, “Untitled,” 2022, oil on canvas, 125×150 cm, courtesy of the artist.
Sara Shamma, “Age5,” 2022, oil on canvas, 125×150 cm, courtesy of the artist.
At the National Pavilion of Syria, Sara Shamma presents “The Tower Tomb of Palmyra”, an immersive installation reflecting on cultural heritage, loss, and resilience in the wake of the Syrian War. Combining painting, architecture, light, sound, and scent, the work draws inspiration from the ancient funerary towers of Palmyra—once symbols of coexistence across cultures, now largely destroyed and dispersed through looting. Through this layered environment, Shamma explores memory as both fragile and enduring, advocating for the restitution of displaced antiquities while honoring the histories they embody. Centering a single artist for the first time, the pavilion signals a renewed cultural presence, positioning Syria’s past and future within a broader global dialogue.
What we love: Giving Sara Shamma the space to confront displacement and memory head-on, using a fully immersive language to reassemble what has been lost.
Sara Shamma: The Tower Tomb of Palmyra
May 9–November 22, 2026
Japan Pavilion
Ei Arakawa-Nash: Grass Babies, Moon Babies
Curated by Lisa Horikawa and Mizuki Takahashi.
Ei Arakawa, “See Weeds,” 2011. Installation/performance view. Les Abattoirs, Toulouse. Photo by Marc Boyer. Courtesy of the artists
At the Japan Pavilion, Ei Arakawa-Nash presents “Grass Babies, Moon Babies,” an immersive and participatory installation that unfolds as a living environment shaped by its visitors. Upon entering, audiences are invited to carry and care for one of 200 baby dolls, activating the work through gestures of movement, maintenance, and collective responsibility. Rooted in the artist’s experience of parenthood, the project reframes caregiving as both intimate and socially structured labor, foregrounding the often-invisible systems that sustain daily life. Over the course of the Biennale, the pavilion evolves through performance and collaboration, blurring the boundaries between exhibition and lived experience. Expanding beyond a singular national narrative, the work embraces a diasporic and queer perspective, positioning the pavilion as a shared, ever-shifting space of participation.
What we love: Ei Arakawa-Nash reframes caregiving, challenging its gendered norms and blurring exhibition with lived experience to reflect contemporary life.
Ei Arakawa-Nash: Grass Babies, Moon Babies
May 9–November 22, 2026
Danish Pavilion
Maja Malou Lyse: Things to Come
Curated by Chus Martínez.
Maja Malou Lyse, “Things to Come,” behind the scenes, photo by Zoe Chait.
At the Danish Pavilion, Maja Malou Lyse presents “Things to Come,” a provocative new installation examining the entanglement of science, sexuality, and image culture in shaping contemporary life. Drawing on speculative fiction and recent scientific research, the project considers how exposure to digital and virtual imagery not only influences perception, but also enters the biological realm—collapsing distinctions between body and media. Through a large-scale video installation developed with collaborators including Common Accounts and DIS, Lyse constructs a sensorial environment where pornography, technology, and futurity converge. Against the backdrop of declining fertility and shifting social structures, the work frames reproduction as both a biological and cultural question, positioning the image as an active force in shaping human experience. At once unsettling and reflective, “Things to Come” probes the fragile boundaries between intimacy, technology, and the future of the body.
What we love: The tension between technology and biology—raising urgent, often overlooked questions about how image culture is reshaping the body and reproduction.
Maja Malou Lyse: Things to Come
May 9–November 22, 2026
Dutch Pavilion
Dries Verhoeven: The Fortress
Curated by Rieke Vos.
Dutch Pavilion, Venice, photo by Andrea Avezzù.
At the Dutch Pavilion, Dries Verhoeven presents “The Fortress,” a performance and architectural installation that reimagines Gerrit Rietveld’s iconic modernist structure as a closed, bunker-like space. Marking the first time performance is central to the pavilion, the work examines Western society’s growing impulse toward self-preservation amid geopolitical uncertainty. As visitors move through the transformed environment, they are confronted with how the desire to protect personal, social, and national boundaries can become a form of confinement. Using the Biennale’s own structure as a point of departure, Verhoeven and curator Rieke Vos reflect on the contradictions of a world that outwardly stages unity while increasingly retreating inward—positioning “The Fortress” as both a spatial and psychological meditation on isolation, security, and the limits of collective imagination.
What we love: A performance-first approach that turns the pavilion into a mirror, prompting visitors to confront their own instincts around security and isolation.
Dries Verhoeven: The Fortress
May 9–November 22, 2026
Estonian Pavilion
Merike Estna: The House of Leaking Sky
Curated by Natalia Sielewicz.
Portrait of Merike Estna, by Marta Vaarik.
At the Estonian Pavilion, Merike Estna presents “The House of Leaking Sky,” a project that transforms the exhibition space into an open, evolving studio. Over the course of the Biennale, a monumental canvas is gradually activated—paint applied, absorbed, and allowed to spill beyond its boundaries—blurring distinctions between artwork, process, and daily life. Curated by Natalia Sielewicz, the presentation foregrounds Estna’s expanded approach to painting, one that integrates performance, care, and collective experience. Living and working on-site, the artist entwines creative labor with lived rhythms, challenging notions of permanence and authorship. Set within a former church turned community space, the installation brings together the sacred and the everyday, positioning painting as a fluid, communal act that unfolds over time.
What we love: Watching the canvas unfold in real time, as Merike Estna paints on-site, breaking from the notion of a fixed exhibition.
Merike Estna: The House of Leaking Sky
May 9–November 22, 2026
Pavilion of Finland
Jenna Sutela: Aeolian Suite
Curated by Stefanie Hessler.
Jenna Sutela, “Aeolian Suite,” 2026 (work in progress), Pavilion of Finland at the 61st Venice Biennale, image Hertta Kiiski, courtesy of Frame Contemporary Art Finland.
At the Pavilion of Finland, Jenna Sutela presents “Aeolian Suite,” a multisensory installation that transforms Alvar and Elissa Aalto’s modernist structure into a dynamic “windscape” of sound, movement, and atmospheric presence. Drawing on meteorological data and incorporating instruments, voices, and environmental inputs, the work treats wind as both subject and collaborator—an invisible force that shapes perception, ecology, and systems of knowledge. Moving between scientific inquiry and poetic intuition, the installation explores how natural phenomena intersect with technological and cultural frameworks. Personified winds—drawn from Venice—become central protagonists, guiding visitors through an immersive experience that foregrounds unpredictability, relationality, and the limits of human control. In doing so, “Aeolian Suite” invites a deeper attunement to the environment, positioning listening as a mode of understanding in an increasingly volatile world.
What we love: Making the invisible palpable, wind becomes the driving force, revealing how unseen natural systems quietly shape our world.
Jenna Sutela: Aeolian Suite
May 9–November 22, 2026
