Venice Biennale 2026: India and Catalonia Pavilions

Venice Biennale 2026: India and Catalonia Pavilions

At the 61st Venice Biennale two collateral projects stand out for their focus on memory, territory and power infrastructures: the India Pavilion with Geographies of Distance: Remembering Home and the Catalan project Catalonia in Venice: Paper Tears. Both works connect past and present through materials, archives and time-based installations.

India Pavilion — Geographies of Distance: Remembering Home

Curated by Amin Jaffer, the exhibition explores the idea of home as an emotional device and an ongoing reconstruction of space and memory. The project reflects India's rapid urban and social transformations, presenting works that blend materiality, ritual and personal mythology.

• Alwar Balasubramaniam: clay works that record the fragility of the earth.
• Sumakshi Singh: uses thread to rebuild demolished homes, creating delicate memory structures.
• Ranjani Shettar: hanging gardens made of organic materials, suspended between craft and nature.
• Skarma Sonam Tashi: papier-mâché architectures evoking Ladakh and development-related threats.
• Asim Waqif: bamboo installations symbolizing rapid urban growth and the erasure of collective pasts.

Catalonia in Venice — Paper Tears

Presented by the Institut Ramon Llull and curated by Elise Lammer, Paper Tears by Claudia Pagès Rabal is a multisensory installation of light, sound, image and choreography. The centerpiece is an archive of 15th-century watermarks held at the Museu Molí Paperer de Capellades, visible only in transmitted light.

The spatial and conceptual arrangement takes inspiration from underground and surface networks of fresh and salt water that serve as the project's topological framework: experiencing Paper Tears becomes like traveling in a time machine, juxtaposing representative elements of a past era with contemporary realities, including geopolitical conflicts and migration crises.

Practical information

Location: Venice (collateral event to the 61st Venice Biennale).

Timing context: article published on 11 May 2026.

For current visiting hours and routes, check the official channels of the organizers and participating institutions.