How the Biennale Works, Who Decides What Becomes Visible, and Why This Edition Is Politically Charged The Venice Biennale can feel like a closed system. Pavilions, curators, the Giardini, the Arsenale, collateral events, national representation, juries, prizes, protests: at first glance, it can seem like a structure designed mainly for people who already know the codes. But once you understand that structure, something far more interesting than a series of exhibitions becomes visible. The Biennale is a temporary model of the world. A place where art, power, history, diplomacy and representation come together. Not as abstract concepts, but through buildings, flags, bodies, materials, choices and absences. The Venice Biennale Arte 2026 is the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale...
There are artists who make objects.And then there are artists who quietly—and relentlessly—shift the center of gravity. Simone Leigh belongs to the latter. Born in Chicago in 1967, Leigh didn’t rush into the art world with the usual urgency. In fact, she resisted it. Studied philosophy. Considered becoming a social worker. Tried, quite deliberately, not to be an artist. And yet—inevitably—she became one. Because some practices are not choices, but conditions. Today, Leigh is one of the most influential voices in contemporary art, known for monumental sculptures and immersive installations that do something deceptively simple: they place Black women—historically marginalized, overlooked, misread—firmly at the center. Not as subjects.As structures. The Body as Architecture Leigh’s work is immediately recognisable: powerful, often...
Annelies Nuy is currently developing Post-Colonial Gold, a research project at the intersection of art, fashion, and value systems. The project examines the shift of gold from a carrier of meaning in pre-colonial cultures to its current role as an economic instrument embedded within systems of power, ownership, and global distribution. In pre-colonial contexts, gold functioned within spiritual, social, and relational systems. During colonial expansion, this meaning was replaced by a model based on extraction, accumulation, and control. Post-Colonial Gold makes this shift explicit and places the historical meaning of gold in contrast with another understanding of value. From gold to meaning Where gold once represented connection, ritual, and collective meaning, it was reduced within the colonial system to ownership...
