{"id":499709,"date":"2026-02-26T01:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T01:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499709\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T01:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T01:04:08","slug":"after-a-turbulent-year-australias-khaled-sabsabi-will-present-two-works-at-the-venice-biennale-venice-biennale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499709\/","title":{"rendered":"After a turbulent year, Australia\u2019s Khaled Sabsabi will present two works at the Venice Biennale | Venice Biennale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s presentation at the Venice Biennale<\/a> in May will be a \u201cnurturing experience\u201d designed to bring people together \u2013 in the aftermath of one of the most turbulent and divisive periods in the country\u2019s 72-year history at the prestigious international art festival.<\/p>\n

Artist Khaled Sabsabi<\/a> and curator Michael Dagostino, who were controversially dumped and then reinstated as Australia\u2019s representatives, will present not one but two major works at the Venice Biennale in May \u2013 both informed by Sabsabi\u2019s practice as a Sufi Muslim and exploring \u201cspirituality, migration, and the vastness of shared humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Curator Michael Dagostino and artist Khaled Sabsabi, who will represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Photograph: Bec Lorrimer\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

In the Australia Pavilion \u2013 the country\u2019s official national outpost \u2013 the artist-curator team will present a work titled conference of one\u2019s self, which Sabsabi describes as a multisensory \u201cinvitation for all people, regardless of faith, ethnic, ethnicity, religion\u201d to \u201ccome together to contemplate our collective humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n

The pair will also present a crowdfunded version of their original Venice Biennale proposal \u2013 but within the Biennale\u2019s main exhibition, curated by its late artistic director Koyo Kouoh. Kouoh, who died in May, invited Sabsabi and Dagostino to be part of her exhibition after Creative Australia rescinded their appointment.<\/p>\n

It is the first time an Australian artist has presented simultaneously in the Australia Pavilion and in the main exhibition. Australia\u2019s most recent representative Archie Moore won the prestigious Golden Lion<\/a> at the 2024 Venice Biennale, for his installation kith and kin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the details of both Sabsabi works are being kept under wraps for now, the artist has said they are closely connected, and inspired by the 12th-century Tasawwuf allegorical poem The Conference of the Birds, about the quest for spiritual enlightenment.<\/p>\n

For the past 15 or so years Sabsabi\u2019s work has been heavily influenced by Sufism or Tasawwuf, a mystical and pluralist strand of Islam that focuses on personal connection with the divine.<\/p>\n

Together, the two works also reflect the core Tasawwuf concept of the interconnected inner and outer self. \u201c[They\u2019re] looking at the ideas of the inner and the outer, the zahir and batin, the seen and unseen; what we can touch [and] what we can imagine,\u201d Sabsabi said.<\/p>\n

The Pavilion work will feature audio and visual components, including \u201cmoments that rely on light to shimmer off and bounce and refract within the space to reveal other components of the work\u201d, the artist said.<\/p>\n

The Creative Australia chief executive, Adrian Collette, who came under fire over the initial decision to rescind the pair\u2019s appointment, said the organisation was \u201cproud\u201d to present Sabsabi at the biennale.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabsabi\u2019s work offers a timely and critical opportunity to showcase an optimistic vision of Australian identity on the world stage,\u201d he wrote in an official statement accompanying the announcement on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Syria (2011), a previous work by Khaled Sabsabi. Photograph: Phillip George<\/p>\n

The first details for Australia\u2019s Venice Biennale presentation have been revealed a little more than a year after Creative Australia revoked the original commission, after criticism of Sabsabi\u2019s appointment in The Australian and debate in the Senate about two of his earlier artworks, which Liberal senator Claire Chandler claimed promoted terrorism and antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The sacking of Sabsabi, which Creative Australia described as an attempt to avoid \u201cdivisive debate\u201d, prompted resignations within the organisation and triggered a backlash from the arts community.<\/p>\n

Sabsabi told Guardian at the time that the experience had taken a toll on his physical and emotional wellbeing, and that it amounted to a \u201cdismantling\u201d of his career.<\/p>\n

In July, Creative Australia reinstated Sabsabi and Dagostino, following an independent review that identified \u201cmissteps\u201d in its decision. At the time, Creative Australia chair Wesley Enoch apologised to the artist and curator for the \u201churt and pain\u201d caused by the affair, acknowledging that Sabsabi\u2019s work had been \u201cmischaracterised\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if their sacking had changed their plans for the Biennale, Dagostino said it had not: \u201cThe original intent has not changed. The work has grown, as [all] works grow, but it hasn\u2019t changed that much. It\u2019s just evolved in a very natural way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabsabi moved to western Sydney from Tripoli when he was 12, and his traumatic experience of Lebanon\u2019s civil war and his experiences as a migrant and Muslim have informed his 35-year art practice, generating multimedia works that reflect on the destruction of war, challenge stereotypes and provide windows into the experiences of Muslims living in Australia.<\/p>\n

Khaled Sabsabi\u2019s 2016 work At the speed of light. Photograph: Anna Kucera<\/p>\n

While Sabsabi\u2019s Venice Biennale works are influenced by his own spiritual practice, he says they are \u201cabout respect and acknowledgment of all faiths, and finding commonality\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an invitation for all people, regardless of faith, ethnic, ethnicity, religion, to come in and have these moments of reflection,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I hope that they walk away with some curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s presentation at the Venice Biennale in May will be a \u201cnurturing experience\u201d designed to bring people together…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-499709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}