Collettiva al Padiglione Svizzero

Photo montage by the project team, using image elements by Samuele Cherubini

 The Unfinished Business of Living Together - Gianmaria Andreetta, Luca Beeler, Nina Wakeford, Miriam Laura Leonardi, Lithic Alliance and Yul Tomatala work together on the Swiss Pavilion 2026. 

The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has nominated a collective consisting of cultural practitioners Gianmaria Andreetta, Luca Beeler, Nina Wakeford, Miriam Laura Leonardi, Lithic Alliance and Yul Tomatala for the Swiss Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia 2026. For the first time, the Swiss Biennale contribution was selected through an open competition, with 140 projects submitted.

In the project ‘The Unfinished Business of Living Together’, the nominated collective explores contemporary forms of coexistence. Inspired by a 1978 episode of ‘Telearena’ on Swiss television, which featured controversial discussions of sexual orientation, the project seeks to examine the conditions and possibilities of tolerance and belonging as well as forms of social division.

By nominating this project, Philippe Bischof, Director of Pro Helvetia, followed the recommendation of a jury specially assembled for this competition. He states: ‘One of the outstanding qualities of the Venice Art Biennale is its ability to openly address current social debates through artistic means in an international context. With its approach of using media archive material as a starting point for artistic research into the present, the project team has struck a chord with the times’.

The jury consisted of Federica Chiocchetti, Ann-Kathrin Eickhoff, Vittoria Matarrese, Domagoj Smoljo and Anahita Vessier. The jury's decision acknowledges the importance of risk-taking in contemporary art and the belief that projects like ‘The Unfinished Business of Living Together’ can provoke meaningful societal discourse and result in strong contemporary artistic and curatorial solutions. The project aims to address pressing questions about social cohesion, identity and the values of collective living. 

The nominated team works at the intersections of art and research in Switzerland and Europe. The concept for the Swiss Pavilion was initiated by curators Gianmaria Andreetta (Lugano/Berlin), Luca Beeler (Zurich) and artist Nina Wakeford (London) and artistically developed by the full team further consisting of Miriam Laura Leonardi (Zurich), Lithic Alliance (Zurich/Brussels) and Yul Tomatala (Geneva). ‘We come from different language regions: German-, French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland. We represent different generations. We have international perspectives. What we want to achieve is a Pavilion in which the visitors should ask themselves: When and where is this happening? Does the archive have authority here? The viewer finds a position, or perhaps has an opinion changed’, they explain.

 

The 61st International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia will take place from 9 May to 22 November 2026.  The main exhibition will be curated by Koyo Kouoh (Cameroon/Switzerland).

The International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia is held every two years, alternating with the International Architecture Exhibition. Switzerland has been participating in the Biennale Arte since 1920 and in the Biennale Architettura since 1991. It maintains its own pavilion in the Giardini of the Biennale, which has been managed and programmed by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia since 2012. 

For the first time, the contribution for the Swiss Pavilion at the 2026 Art Biennale was selected through an open call. A total of 140 applications were submitted.

Commissioner: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

Exhibition: 9 May to 22 November 2026

Pre-Opening: 6 to 8 May 2026

Jenna Sutela per la Finlandia

Jenna Sutela (left) and Stefanie Hessler. 

Photo: Matteo de Mayda for Frame Contemporary Art Finland

 Sarà l'artista Jenna Sutela a rappresentare la Finlandia alla 61a Biennale Internazionale d'Arte di Venezia nel 2026 con la curatela di da Stefanie Hessler, direttrice dello Swiss Institute (SI) di New York, selezionata e sostenuta dalla Frame Contemporary Art Finland. 

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Artist Jenna Sutela has been selected to exhibit in the Pavilion of Finland at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, in 2026. The exhibition is curated by Stefanie Hessler, Director of Swiss Institute (SI) in New York, and commissioned and produced by Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

In her work, Jenna Sutela explores biological and computational processes, from the human microbiome and planetary ecosystems to language and code. Her sculptures, installations, and sound pieces frequently include chance elements and evolving structures: they are both live and alive. Often working in dialogue with scientists, Sutela seeks to move beyond individualism and anthropocentrism to consider interrelationships at all scales.

The selection was made following an open call organised by Frame, which received 128 exhibition proposals. The jury consisted of Charles Esche, Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Asrin Haidari, Curator of the Moderna Museet, Anna-Riikka Hirvonen, Director of the Oulu Art Museum, and Artist Outi Pieski. Juha Huuskonen, the CEO of Frame and Commissioner of the Pavilion of Finland, chaired the jury.

The jury was impressed by Jenna Sutela and Stefanie Hessler’s exhibition proposal, which builds on their long-term artistic collaboration. They recognized Sutela’s distinctive and multidisciplinary practice, which explores the fluid boundaries between natural and technological systems. The jury also highlighted how Sutela and Hessler’s visionary practices engage with the social and environmental complexities shaping our existence. The jury expressed confidence that the duo will create a topical and artistically compelling exhibition for the Pavilion of Finland.

Artist

“I really appreciate the chance to present new work and to continue collaborating with Stefanie at the Venice Biennale. I’m particularly pleased to create an installation for the special pavilion by Alvar and Elissa Aalto,” Jenna Sutela says.

Jenna Sutela is a Finnish artist based in Berlin. Sutela’s work has been presented internationally, including at the Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2025); Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (2024); Swiss Institute, New York (2023); Helsinki Biennale (2023); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2022); Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2022); Shanghai Biennial (2021); Liverpool Biennial (2021); Kunsthall Trondheim (2020); Serpentine Galleries, London (2019); and Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2019). Sutela has been a visiting artist at La Becque, MIT, and Callie’s Berlin.

Curator

Stefanie Hessler is a curator, writer, and the Director of Swiss Institute (SI) in New York. Her work centers artists and ideas through new commissions, transdisciplinary collaborations, and experimental formats, often focusing on ecologies, technologies, and their social intersections.

“I am thrilled to continue my collaboration with Jenna Sutela on the occasion of the Finnish Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale,” Stefanie Hessler says. “Jenna and I met in 2016 in Helsinki and have worked together on numerous occasions – most recently for her new commission Vermi-Sibyl (2023) as part of Spora at Swiss Institute. I look forward to curating her upcoming work, especially in the context of next year’s Biennale under the direction of Koyo Kouoh.”

Previously Hessler served as the Director of Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway. Her selected projects as an independent curator include the 17th Momenta Biennale: Sensing Nature, Montreal; Rising Tides/Down to Earth, Gropius Bau, Berlin; Joan Jonas: Moving Off the Land II, Ocean Space, Venice; the symposium Practices of Attention, 33rd Bienal de São Paulo; and the 6th Athens Biennale. Hessler is the author of Prospecting Ocean (MIT Press) and has edited over a dozen volumes.

Commissioner

The exhibition in the Aalto Pavilion of Finland is commissioned and produced by Frame Contemporary Art Finland. Frame, an advocate for Finnish contemporary art, supports international initiatives, facilitates professional partnerships, and encourages critical development of the field through grants, visitor programmes, residencies, seminars and talks, and exhibition collaborations.

The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. The Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture is the main partner of the exhibition.

Press Inquiries

Rosa Kuosmanen, Head of Communications

T +358 50 4653462

rosa.kuosmanen@frame-finland.fi

Aline Bouvy per il Lussemburgo

 

Il Lussemburgo proporrà un padiglione elaborato da Aline Bouvy, con la curatela di Stilbé Schroeder

Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, appointed Commissioner of the Luxembourg pavilions at the Venice Art and Architecture biennials by the Ministry of Culture, and Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, curator of the 2026 and 2028 Biennales, have selected artist Aline Bouvy to produce the exhibition at the Luxembourg pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale.

Statement by the Commissioner and Curator

By selecting Aline Bouvy, Kultur | lx and Casino Luxembourg seek, above all, to honour and showcase the artist’s 25-year long career. Aline Bouvy has built an international career that has been tremendously consistent in artistic terms whilst also making successfully bold choices that always surprise. Refusing to restrict herself to expected norms or make compromises, Bouvy explores a range of techniques, creating a body of work that is dense and polymorphic, unfolding over time, fed by constant research, individual and group exhibitions, artist residencies and international collaborations.

Casino Luxembourg has followed Aline Bouvy’s work for many years, and she has been part of several group exhibitions at the institution. The relationship was consolidated during preparations for her first individual exhibition in Luxembourg in 2025, curated by Stilbé Schroeder.

Aline Bouvy’s selection for the 2026 Venice Biennale is therefore based on a clear artistic foundation and a well-established relationship which will be essential for any potential collaboration of this scale. Developing a project for the Biennale, which follows on from her individual exhibition at Casino Luxembourg, will allow Bouvy to begin this new chapter with the additional experience and confidence gained through her collaboration with Casino Luxembourg.

2026 will be the 30th anniversary year for Casino Luxembourg, a leading cultural institution that has already helped organise Luxembourg’s presence in Venice, having been actively involved in 7 pavilions. In recent years, Casino Luxembourg has also served as an important space for monograph exhibitions by artists from Luxembourg included in its artistic programming, and also by inviting and supporting many artists to take part in exhibitions and projects with international partner institutions. Showcasing national contemporary artists is thus at the heart of Casino Luxembourg’s work. Supporting artists during events like the Venice Biennale is therefore an honour that enhances and complements Casino Luxembourg’s initiatives to develop and promote artists.

Artist Biography

Born in 1974 in Belgium, Aline Bouvy lives and works between Belgium and Luxembourg. She explores a variety of mediums, including sculpture, drawing, photography and sound.

In her work, Bouvy questions our relationship with our bodies and space and invites us into new sensory experiences, both appealing and repulsive, where the body becomes a medium. Connecting desire and empathy, shapes and languages emerge where images or words might not otherwise occur.

Bouvy’s works are a loaded sensory experience linked to identity and taboos. They represent the history of both male and female bodies and their underlying relationships: sexual, domestic, intimate, and political. By revisiting the slow, utopian trajectory of a culture turning away from the dominant models of patriarchy and heteronormativity, a libido freed of all morality, without judgement, brings down these bodies incarnating authority in a society that monitors and restricts our bodies. By laying bare a world under surveillance, Bouvy breaks aesthetic and political norms applied to power and domination, thus destabilizing our points of reference.

(Biography by Marianne Derrien).

Curator Biography

Stilbé Schroeder is curator and head of department for exhibitions and programme at Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain.

After living, studying and working in Brussels and Strasbourg, Stilbé Schroeder returned to Luxembourg in 2015 to join Casino Luxembourg as an exhibition coordinator. In 2017 and 2019, she was deputy curator for the Luxembourg pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Since 2021, she has served as a curator involved in discussion and development of the exhibition programme at the museum.

A new support programme for artists

An innovation for 2026 will be a call for applications to select the artists who will receive support as they explore the Venice Biennale and its themes, both in terms of production and networks, and explore international aesthetics discourses. Several opportunities for discussion with the artist selected and international curators will be organised. A programme of visits and scouting will also be developed during the 2026 Venice Biennale.

This new programme combines several initiatives offered by Kultur | lx to support artists’ career development.

The call will be launched in February 2025.

Selection process for the 2026 Luxembourg Pavilion artist

The process to select the artist and the project for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale has evolved over time. Since 2011, the project for the Luxembourg pavilion in Venice has been chosen following a call for applications.

In order to reposition Luxembourg at this international event, the Commissioner, in agreement with the Ministry of Culture, has decided to adapt the selection process and give a greater role to the curator when choosing the artist, considering, above all, the artist’s career and international profile, as opposed to selecting a project.

Luxembourg’s presence at the Venice Biennale seeks to showcase and raise the profile of Luxembourg’s art scene, one of the Ministry of Culture’s priorities.

Supporting and promoting artists from Luxembourg abroad while also strengthening international relations through culture are key elements of this strategy. (Coalition agreement 2023 -2028, pp 185)

Presenting Luxembourg as an international actor and interlocutor for contemporary art and architecture includes initiatives to showcase artists, architects and architectural researchers who work in Luxembourg, along with the cultural institutions and stakeholders in Luxembourg involved.

“Aline Bouvy’s work reflects the creativity, diversity and high standard of our national art scene. Her exhibition at Venice in 2026 will boost Luxembourg’s presence at international level along with artistic and cultural exchanges.” Eric Thill, Minister for Culture

info https://www.kulturlx.lu/en/aline-bouvy-to-represent-luxembourg-at-the-2026-venice-biennale/ 

Florentina Holzinger per l'Austria

 

La performance Florentina Holzinger occuperà il padiglione austriaco. 

Fiona Pardington per la Nuova Zelanda

Sarà Fiona Pardington a rappresentare la Nuova Zelanda alla prossima Biennale, ecco il comunicato stampa da https://creativenz.govt.nz/

La stimata artista Fiona Pardington MNZM (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Clan Cameron of Erracht) rappresenterà la Nuova Zelanda alla Biennale di Venezia nel 2026. 
L'Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa è lieto di sostenere la selezione degli artisti effettuata dal suo nuovo partner di distribuzione, la Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. 
Fiona afferma che la proposta di esporre nel padiglione nazionale dell'Australia Nuova Zelanda a Venezia è un momento inaspettato e straordinario nella sua carriera. 
"Sono profondamente onorata e onorata di questa incredibile opportunità di rappresentare Aotearoa alla Biennale di Venezia. Sono profondamente grata che il mio lavoro sia apprezzato in questo modo e per tutte le persone che remano furiosamente sul waka e che mi hanno portato fin qui. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini", afferma Fiona.
Il direttore della Christchurch Art Gallery, Blair Jackson, è lieto che la galleria collabori con un artista così eccezionale. 
" Fiona ha una storia di pratica impressionante che dura da più di quattro decenni", afferma.  
"È giustamente rinomata per l'intensità emotiva delle sue fotografie ed è responsabile di alcune delle immagini più memorabili nell'arte contemporanea di Aotearoa New Zealand. La sua capacità di trasmettere l'intangibile rende la visione delle sue opere un'esperienza potente ed esaltante", afferma Blair. 
Dopo aver ottenuto il primo riconoscimento negli anni '80, il lavoro di Fiona Pardington ha continuato a evolversi, spesso operando all'interno del genere della natura morta e ampliandolo. Le sue suggestive fotografie di taonga e altri oggetti provenienti da collezioni museali sono acutamente attente al contesto e alla storia, pur mantenendo una qualità sfuggente. 
Dopo un attento processo, Creative New Zealand ha nominato la Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū come partner per la realizzazione del padiglione nazionale di Aotearoa New Zealand.
Presentata lo scorso anno, la nuova partnership garantisce che la gestione quotidiana del progetto sia supervisionata da un partner con vaste competenze, conoscenze ed esperienza nella curatela e nell'organizzazione di mostre su larga scala.  
Si tratta di un approccio forte e pratico per mantenere la presenza di Aotearoa New Zealand a Venezia, afferma il Commissario neozelandese per la Biennale di Venezia e Presidente del Consiglio delle Arti, Kent Gardner. 
"Siamo entusiasti di avere un partner con l'esperienza e la visione per offrire un'eccellente presentazione a Venezia, in seguito al numero storico di artisti neozelandesi invitati nel 2024. La vittoria del Leone d'oro per il miglior partecipante da parte di Mataaho Collective è stata un risultato straordinario e ha fatto luce sulla Nuova Zelanda e sui suoi artisti", afferma.
"L'Arts Council sostiene enormemente la presenza della Nuova Zelanda a Venezia e si è impegnato a organizzare mostre nei padiglioni nazionali nel 2026, 2028 e 2030", afferma Kent.
La Christchurch Art Gallery sta lavorando ai preparativi per la consegna del padiglione nazionale nel 2026, afferma il direttore Blair Jackson. 
"Stiamo lavorando a stretto contatto con Creative New Zealand e siamo entusiasti di andare avanti con i piani per Venezia 2026. Il nostro team esperto e altamente qualificato non vede l'ora di operare in questo contesto speciale per portare l'arte di Aotearoa a un pubblico internazionale. La collaborazione creativa con gli artisti è ciò che ci dà forza come istituzione ed è un privilegio poter stabilire la direzione per il 2026", afferma Blair.  
L'impegno di Creative New Zealand per il supporto continuo a Venezia è stato confermato nel 2022, in seguito a una revisione esterna sulla sostenibilità a lungo termine del progetto. La raccomandazione era che un partner di consegna esterno gestisse la logistica quotidiana, mentre il ruolo di Creative New Zealand si sarebbe concentrato sul mantenimento e sul rafforzamento del suo rapporto con la Biennale e sulla fornitura di livelli di finanziamento costanti e stabili.  
Stephen Wainwright, amministratore delegato di Creative New Zealand, afferma che la Christchurch Art Gallery vanta una lunga collaborazione con Venezia.  
"Il team della galleria è stato affiliato alla presenza di Aotearoa New Zealand alla Biennale per molti anni, inclusi il 2009, il 2011 e il 2013, quando l'ex direttrice Jenny Harper era Commissaria. È fantastico costruire su questa storia, creando al contempo un'opportunità per i curatori neozelandesi di lavorare nell'ambiente straordinario e storico della Biennale di Venezia", ​​afferma Stephen.  
Ulteriori informazioni e dettagli sul progetto di Fiona Pardington saranno resi noti più avanti nel 2025.