Memories of home: 7 years on, India returns to the Venice Biennale

“After a hiatus, it felt important to return with a project that is both rooted in Indian civilisation and carries universal resonance,” he says.

From ruin to renaissance

Former French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte led his army into Italy in early 1796, effectively ending Venice’s glorious past as a great maritime republic. In The History of the Venice Biennale (1895–2005), author Enzo Di Martino notes, “Denied any type of political or economic role, even after the unification of Italy, [Venice] survived by cultivating the myth of its greatnessness based on the nostalgia of an unrepeatable past.”

However, he argues that, as often happens after historic catastrophes, Venice became—for all intents and purposes—a romantic myth, “so irredeemably lost that poets and painters from all over Europe came to pay a visit, seeking the hidden mystery in its stones and waters.”

Engraving of the entry of French troops into Venice in 1797 (Wikipedia)

For artists, Venice offered both inspiration and visual revelation. “Especially in the wake of travels of Lord Byron and J. M. W. Turner, the trickle of painters coming to Venice from all over the world rapidly increased, without subsiding to this day,” writes Martino.

The fallen city needed revival—and this became its opportunity. Socially and economically weakened, Venice sought to regain its footing. In 1887, following the example of other Italian cities, it organised a major art exhibition. Unlike others that focused on regional craftsmanship, Venice opted for a national exhibition of painting and sculpture, featuring over a thousand works.

Martino notes, “The exhibition, sustained in part by the economic support of far-sighted luminaries from industry and finance in the Veneto region, was a great success. However, and above all, it constituted a premise for a much larger and important project…the Biennale.”

The success of the 1887 exhibition convinced Venetian public administrators that such a platform could enhance both reputation and profitability within the art market. In 1894, the town council approved the proposal for a biennale, which was first held in 1895.

The official poster of the first edition (Wikipedia)

Martino writes, “At that first Biennale 285 artists took part, of which 156 from abroad, with a total of 516 works,” adding, “It is enough to say that there were 224,327 visitors, an incredibly high number, especially if compared with today. Furthermore, 186 out of a total of 516 works on display were sold for a sum of over three hundred and sixty thousand lire, valued at that time.”

Art in an age of crisis

This year’s exhibition has had to navigate the challenges of ongoing wars and a climate of political uncertainty. In an email exchange with The Indian Express, Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, notes: “In today’s world, where nations are navigating geopolitical uncertainty, economic realignments, and deep social transitions, a biennale serves as far more than an exhibition platform. It becomes a space for reflection, dialogue, and cultural diplomacy. Such forums allow countries to engage with one another not only through policy or commerce, but through ideas, imagination, and shared human experience. In that sense, the role of a biennale is especially significant in turbulent times: it creates room for empathy, exchange, and a deeper understanding of how societies see themselves and the world around them.”

According to Aggarwal, for India, participation in an international platform such as the Venice Biennale is an opportunity to present the vitality of our contemporary cultural landscape with confidence and depth. “It enables emerging Indian artistic voices to enter global conversations in meaningful ways, while also strengthening long-term cultural relationships with institutions, curators, and audiences across the world. We see such participation not as a symbolic gesture alone, but as an important part of India’s wider cultural engagement with the international community,” he says.

Poster of the 9th Biennale of Venice (Wikimedia Commons)

Art amid a global crisis, however, is not unprecedented for the Venice Biennale. In earlier decades, it was directly impacted by the World Wars. With the advent of World War I, the Biennale suspended its activities after the 1914 edition, reopening only six years later in 1920, at the end of a global conflict that involved Italy directly and in which many artists also participated.

Similarly, by 1940, World War II was in full swing, and several nations withdrew from the exhibition: France, Great Britain, Denmark, Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union left their pavilions empty. “Antonio Maraini, managing director of the Biennale,” writes Martino, “in the catalogue paid homage to the artists, also those absent, ‘in the hope that art can bring them back together in Venice in two years, more and more numerous and industrious’.”

Despite the war, the Biennale mounted a major exhibition in 1942. However, war ultimately interrupted its activities; the Biennale would only reopen in 1948.

Jaffer adds, “The Biennale has always reflected the contemporary world, humankind’s greatest preoccupations and concerns, as well as developments in creative expression. With a global audience of more than 600,000 people per year, it is easy to see how the Biennale has become a platform for the articulation of issues that confront society today…”.

5 voices from India

Jaffer notes that the India Pavilion comprises works by five contemporary Indian artists: Sumakshi Singh, Alwar Balasubramaniam (Bala), Ranjani Shettar, Asim Waqif and Skarma Sonam Tashi. Each artist’s work addresses questions of home through the use of traditional Indian materials and techniques.

“Sumakshi’s use of intricate thread work,” Jaffer explains, “to create an innately fragile, spectral reconstruction of her demolished family home, 33 Link Road, was the central point around which I configured the Pavilion.”

Bala expresses notions of home through his treatment and transformation of soil native to his ancestral village, and his work foregrounds the natural process as a co-author of human creativity.

Shettar’s delicately balanced, large-scale installations evoke floral forms, inviting audiences to sense their own place within nature and to observe their sensory response. Meanwhile, Tashi’s work brings attention to regional specificity and ecological knowledge, interpreting ideas of home as shaped by environment and community.

While the first four projects reflect on home and environment as it is or was, Waqif’s work looks towards the future, introducing the dimension of change and renewal with an installation in bamboo that evokes traditional scaffolding.

La Biennale di Venezia 2019 (Wikipedia)

According to Aggarwal, India’s representation in this edition is rooted in the understanding that our cultural identity is inherently plural, layered, and dialogic. “The Pavilion does not seek to present a singular or uniform narrative; rather, it reflects India as a federation of histories, ecologies, materials, memories, and artistic lineages. This plurality is one of the defining strengths of Indian culture, and it is important that any international presentation of India reflects that richness with sensitivity and care,” he says.

The five participating artists represent distinct regions and artistic sensibilities, ranging from Tirunelveli, Bengaluru, Leh, Hyderabad, and New Delhi.

The curatorial framework, says Aggarwal, consciously foregrounds this diversity, not only in terms of geography, but also in materials, techniques, and conceptual approaches. “The participating artists bring with them distinct regional experiences, material practices, and artistic vocabularies. Their works engage with landscape, memory, ecology, and belonging in ways that resonate with different parts of the country while also speaking to universal concerns,” he adds.

“In this way, representation is not limited to geography alone; it is also expressed through materiality, lived knowledge, cultural continuity, and emotional association with place. The Pavilion thus becomes a narrative space in which diverse Indian realities coexist, converse, and collectively shape a broader understanding of the nation’s contemporary artistic imagination,” notes Aggarwal.

Indian art through Tashi’s work

With a current surge in global attention towards Indian art, Jaffer believes that the Pavilion is an opportunity to show how India is both grounded in its traditions—“evident in this instance through materials and techniques—and at the same time profoundly forward-looking. Indian culture is one which continually transforms while carrying forward an identity which has been formed across centuries.”

The story of Tashi—and his journey to the Biennale—is fascinating. He tells The Indian Express, “My practice draws from my homeland of Ladakh, where domestic spaces exist in close relationship with a vast and extreme mountain landscape. I work with recycled materials such as cardboard, papier-mache, and natural clay to evoke this connection. These materials reflect both the sustainability of traditional Ladakhi architecture and the fragility of its ecosystem today.”

Over time, this approach became central to his work, allowing Tashi to explore themes of memory, environment, and belonging. “This body of work gradually evolved through my own art practices, for example, I did site-specific installations in Ladakh and exhibitions in various places of India, leading to the opportunity to present it at the Venice Biennale,” says Tashi.

“For me,” he says, “home is both a physical landscape and an emotional memory. Growing up in Ladakh and later studying in Santiniketan exposed me to very different environments and ways of living. This movement between places made me realise that home is not only where we are, but something we carry within us through memory, material, and cultural experience. In my work, I often reconstruct fragments of Ladakhi architecture using recycled materials, creating a sense of distance and connection at the same time. At this point in my life, home feels like a shifting condition—rooted in one place, yet constantly expanding through experience,” he says.

The landscapes and mountains of Ladakh appear monumental and permanent, yet they are deeply fragile. They are increasingly affected by climate change, changing water systems, and human intervention, says Tashi. “Through my work, I try to reflect this paradox—how something that looks strong and timeless can actually be vulnerable. By using lightweight and delicate materials like papier-mache and clay, I bring attention to this condition. I hope the work encourages viewers to think about sustainability, traditional knowledge, and the importance of maintaining a balance between human life and the environment, not only in Ladakh but in other fragile ecosystems as well,” he adds.

The public-private model

According to Aggarwal, the growing collaboration between public institutions and private cultural organisations has opened up very important fresh possibilities for India’s cultural sector, particularly in the international arena.

The India Pavilion has been developed through a collaborative partnership between the Ministry of Culture, the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, and the Serendipity Arts Foundation, under the curatorship of Dr Amin Jaffer.

“These partnerships allow different institutions to contribute their respective strengths in complementary ways. Public institutions bring policy support, continuity, legitimacy, and a long-term national vision, while private cultural organisations often contribute curatorial expertise, specialised infrastructure, flexibility, and strong global networks. Together, they create a far more dynamic and responsive cultural ecosystem,” he says.

Venice Biennale in 1930 (Wikimedia Commons)

He adds that such collaborations make it possible to support artistic production more effectively, build stronger institutional frameworks, and expand opportunities for Indian artists to engage with global platforms. “They also enable more ambitious and carefully structured international presentations of Indian art, where curatorial excellence and institutional commitment can work hand in hand. The India Pavilion itself reflects the value of this collaborative approach, demonstrating how partnerships can strengthen cultural diplomacy, widen global visibility for Indian art, and contribute meaningfully to the growth of India’s creative economy,” says Aggarwal.

The road ahead for Indian art

According to Jaffer, the challenge existed in laying out five projects in a way that permitted each work to be seen and understood autonomously while forming part of a coherent narrative. “The India Pavilion is being shown in l’Isolotto, a late medieval warehouse in the Arsenale, which is of historic significance. Within the building are existing elements of architecture, which might have obstructed the installation of artwork and circulation in the space. Fortunately, we have been able to arrive at a layout that does justice to the projects and to the space. Having a strong – and emotive—curatorial framework is helpful in honing a presentation where harmony and tension find balance and come together to create an encompassing whole,” he explains.

What comes next, according to the Ministry of Culture, is the continued development of stronger institutional partnerships, deeper curatorial collaborations, and more sustained frameworks through which Indian artists and cultural practitioners can be supported internationally. “We would like to see this momentum translate into enduring relationships with museums, biennales, cultural organisations, and academic and artistic networks across the world…,” Aggarwal says.

Looking ahead, he says, it would be important to see an even wider spectrum of Indian artistic voices represented on global platforms, voices that are deeply grounded in local histories, materials, traditions, and knowledge systems, while also engaging with the pressing questions of the contemporary world.

“We would also like to see greater space for artists who are able to reinterpret inherited forms and community knowledge through contemporary idioms, as well as for emerging practitioners whose work reflects new energies and new ways of seeing. The objective is not simply representation for its own sake, but the presentation of artistic voices that convey the richness, plurality, and evolving dynamism of India’s cultural imagination and identity. In that sense, the future of India’s international cultural presence lies in bringing forward talent and voices that are both rooted and experimental, local in resonance yet global in relevance,” he adds.

Just like Venice, which in 1948, following the end of World War II, became the first Italian city to resume its cultural activities. In doing so, it once again positioned itself as a gathering place for artists who saw liberation not only as political renewal, but also as the beginning of a new cultural era—a role that the city still carries, functioning as a space where art responds to rupture and opens itself to new beginnings.