India Returns to La Biennale di Venezia 2026 with Pavilion Exploring Memory, Home and Contemporary Identity

Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat described India’s return to La Biennale as a moment of national pride and reflection.

The Pavilion of India has announced details of its participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, marking India’s return to the prestigious global art platform for the first time since 2019. Presented by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, the national pavilion will feature the group exhibition Geographies of Distance: remembering home, curated by Dr. Amin Jaffer.

India’s renewed presence at La Biennale di Venezia is being realised in partnership with the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) and the Serendipity Arts Foundation, two of the country’s leading multidisciplinary cultural institutions. The collaboration underscores India’s growing confidence and ambition in projecting its contemporary cultural voice on the world stage.

A Statement of Cultural Confidence

Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat described India’s return to La Biennale as a moment of national pride and reflection.

“India’s return to La Biennale di Venezia is a proud moment of reflection and a statement of cultural confidence,” the Minister said. “Our national pavilion will showcase a contemporary India that is deeply rooted in its civilisational memory while fully engaged with the world today. Through this pavilion, India affirms the strength of our cultural diversity, the vitality of our creative communities, and the role of art and culture in shaping how our nation is seen and understood globally.”

Contemporary Voices, Civilisational Memory

Shri Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, said the India Pavilion brings together artists whose practices reflect the evolving realities of contemporary India.

“Working across regions and material traditions, these artists articulate India’s global voice through deeply personal and innovative forms of expression,” he said. “Their work demonstrates how India’s creative talent continues to engage meaningfully with questions of memory, place and transformation in a rapidly changing world.”

Speaking on behalf of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Smt. Isha Ambani said the partnership reflects a shared commitment to cultural dialogue and excellence.

“The richness and plurality of the artists’ work reflect the complexities and creative ambition of contemporary India, while celebrating the timeless traditions of our country,” she said. “This project underscores our vision for art and culture to foster a global dialogue that transcends boundaries.”

Exploring Home in a World of Distance and Change

All five participating Indian artists—Alwar Balasubramaniam (Bala), Sumakshi Singh, Ranjani Shettar, Asim Waqif and Skarma Sonam Tashi—draw deeply on India’s material culture traditions, using organic and traditional materials to evoke emotional connections to the idea of home. Despite their diverse geographic origins, generations and artistic practices, the artists are united by a shared inquiry into memory, belonging and transformation.

The exhibition explores how, in an era shaped by migration, urbanisation and global mobility, home becomes less a fixed location and more a portable condition—part memory, part ritual, part personal mythology. As India undergoes rapid economic and spatial transformation, with cities expanding vertically and horizontally, the exhibition reflects on how familiar spaces dissolve, reconfigure and renew.

With Indians constituting nearly 20 per cent of the world’s population and forming one of the largest global diasporas, the exhibition invites viewers to consider whether home is defined by geography or by emotional and cultural continuity.

Artists and Practices

• Alwar Balasubramaniam (Bala) works from rural Tamil Nadu, creating sculptural forms crafted from soil and clay sourced directly from his surroundings, reflecting an intimate dialogue with land and landscape.

• Sumakshi Singh, based in New Delhi, transforms embroidered thread into ethereal architectural installations, turning memory itself into a spatial medium.

• Ranjani Shettar, working in Karnataka, engages with ancient craft traditions to produce hand-made sculptural forms that appear to defy gravity, revealing time, patience and hidden possibilities within natural materials.

• Asim Waqif, trained as an architect, repurposes organic and discarded materials to address issues of consumption, sustainability and public space, encouraging active visitor participation.

• Skarma Sonam Tashi, from Ladakh, works with organic recycled materials and traditional techniques such as papier-mâché to reflect on ecological fragility and cultural preservation in high-altitude landscapes.

Across the pavilion, elements of home appear fractured, suspended, scaffolded or vulnerable, expressing longing and deep-rooted attachment while confronting the realities of mobility and change.

Beyond the Gallery: Ephemeral Interventions in Venice

Curated in response to the Biennale’s theme In Minor Keys, conceived by the late curator Koyo Kouoh, the India Pavilion extends beyond conventional exhibition formats. India’s presence will unfold through ephemeral artistic interventions—music, movement, sound and performance—that emerge within Venice’s daily rhythms, appearing at dawn on bridges, resonating at dusk and materialising in fleeting moments throughout the city.

A curated programme of music, performance, poetry and conversations will activate the pavilion throughout the Biennale, reinforcing India’s commitment to interdisciplinary artistic expression.

Shri Sunil Kant Munjal, Founder Patron of Serendipity Arts, said the pavilion reflects the belief that India’s cultural expression is most powerful when it is shared, dynamic and dialogic.

“Alongside the visual arts programme, our involvement will activate the Pavilion through performance and participation, inviting audiences to engage with ideas of memory, place and belonging in multiple forms,” he said.

A Collective Indian Voice on a Global Stage

Curator Dr. Amin Jaffer described the pavilion as a quiet yet resolute meditation on the fragility and endurance of home.

“The India Pavilion explores home not as a fixed physical location, but as an emotional space carried within the self—a repository of culture, personal mythology and memory,” he said. “Using materials closely associated with Indian civilisation, the artists form a collective Indian voice that resonates deeply with the Biennale’s vision.”

As India returns to La Biennale di Venezia in 2026, the Pavilion stands as a nuanced expression of cultural diplomacy, positioning Indian contemporary art not as spectacle, but as a confident whisper—rooted in civilisation, responsive to the present and open to the world.