After a seven-year hiatus, India returns to the 2026 Venice Biennale with its own pavilion, and much has changed since the last edition in 2019. The return comes at a moment of continued consolidation and expansion of the country’s vibrant contemporary art scene, which is now distributed across multiple centers and increasingly supported by strong internal demand from multi-generational patrons, established and emerging institutions and a new wave of collectors entering the field – as evidenced by the level of affluence and intensity of buying activity at the recent Indian Art Fair.
It will be coordinated by Dr. Amin Jaafar, who is also curator of Qatar’s royal collection, the Al Thani Collection. Shortly after the announcement, The Observer caught up with Jafar in Doha to learn more about the pavilion and how it will bring to the world stage the unique energies emerging from today’s dynamic Indian arts scene.
“We are at a very exciting moment when it comes to art and the broader arts scene. There is a growing audience in India that collects and appreciates art. We see real public interest in large-scale initiatives such as the Kochi Biennale, Jaipur and Jodhpur Art Weeks, as well as in new institutional projects such as the recently opened Bihar Museum,” says Jafar. “At the same time, the government is developing major initiatives such as the Bharat Yujin Yoga Museum and the Museum of Indian Civilization in Delhi. Alongside this, existing institutions such as the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya continue to expand their exhibition programs and engage growing audiences. These are formal museums with permanent collections and curatorial guidance, and are being visited and appreciated more than ever.”
The pavilion will be presented by the Indian Ministry of Culture in partnership with the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center and Serendipity Arts Foundation, two of India’s leading multi-disciplinary cultural institutions. Titled Geographies of Distance: Remembering Home, the exhibition aims to reflect India today in its cultural depth between tradition and the future, from its economic prosperity to enduring craft traditions and diverse voices within the country and its vast global diaspora. At the center is the idea of home, explored through the practices of five artists – Alwar Balasubramaniam (Bala), Somakshi Singh, Ranjani Shettar, Asim Waqif, and Sakarma Sonam Tashi – who draw on material traditions spanning millennia to evoke emotional and cultural connections.
The curatorial theme draws directly from the Biennale’s overarching theme, “In Minor Keys,” which Jaffer interprets as referring to the simple tones on a piano keyboard—those that are soft, elegiac, introspective keys. “When I started thinking about the project, I was drawn to these soft feelings: tender sentiments, introspective emotions. This led me to the theme of home and to the question of homesickness, or homesickness,” he says, adding that this seems particularly relevant in a country like India, which has centuries-old cultural traditions and a strong identity but today is in a state of accelerated transformation. Economic growth, demographic expansion and technological change are dramatically reshaping India’s cities and towns, which are constantly being renovated and transformed. “All over India, completely new cities are emerging, new neighbourhoods, secondary and tertiary cities are expanding. Places that I remember 10 or 15 years ago are now completely transformed. I wanted to focus on that act of remembering – remembering home, remembering the past, remembering where we came from.” From here emerges the long-held concept of home as a physical space – a space that evolves and transforms – but remains omnipresent.
This is important not only because of the spatial shift within India but also because Indians have long moved widely, both within the country and globally. “The pavilion addresses the question and tension of where one comes from that is constantly there. If an Indian moves to America and settles there, at what point does India stop being home, and when does America become home? For the second generation, for their children, is India their home, or is America their home?” says Jafar. These are the questions I grew up with as part of the Indian diaspora. “There has always been a longing for India, a remembrance of India. This feeling remains because there is still a strong bond through language, music, culture, food, cinema and shared values.” Hence, whether India remains one’s true home is another question. “The pavilion explores whether home is a physical space or a portable state – something conveyed through emotion, memory, ritual and personal history. There is no single answer. It is a question visitors should ask themselves as they move through the pavilion.”
He hopes the pavilion will resonate with Indian audiences as much as it does with the diaspora, and more broadly, with the state of displacement that defines today’s global community and those living across geographies. Contemporary Indian art has become highly globalized today, just like India itself. However, when it came to how to represent India, Jafar felt strongly that, given the theme of “In Minor Keys,” the pavilion should focus on what he calls “secondary materials” – the craftsmanship and techniques that have accompanied the country’s civilization and cultural history since its earliest days. “I wanted to go back to materials that are rooted in Indian civilisation,” he explains. “We use thread, clay, reclaimed debris and found materials. These are materials that have been around in India for thousands of years.”
For example, Alwar Balasubramaniam (Bala) will present a broken earth made of clay – the oldest sculptural medium in Indian history. Working out of a studio in rural Tamil Nadu, his practice emerges from an intimate and authentic dialogue with landscape and materials. New Delhi-based artist Somakshi Singh has recreated her entire family home with embroidered thread, transforming memory into an architectural medium. It was a repository of her childhood memories, and before it was torn down she carefully measured it so she could rebuild it. The importance of thread is not only because of local traditions such as tailoring and embroidery, but also because textiles have been the foundation of Indian civilization and its economy for centuries.
Likewise, Ranjani Shettar creates hanging organic plant forms using traditional handicraft techniques from Karnataka, while Asim Waqif works with bamboo – a material deeply rooted in Indian culture and widely used in architecture and construction – to address issues of consumption and sustainability in public spaces. Skarma Sonam Tashi creates works grounded in the landscape and architecture of his native Ladakh, using recycled organic materials and traditional techniques such as papier-mache to explore environmental fragility and cultural preservation.
Jaafar points out, “These are materials that belong to our cultural history. Artists use them in contemporary ways, and express contemporary ideas through materials rooted in ancient practices.” In this way, the pavilion combines India’s roots in tradition with its contemporary innovations. “It is a contemporary art biennale, so the works must speak with the voice of today. They must reflect contemporary artistic practice in India today. But their material language remains deeply connected to India’s civilizational past.”
Although the five artists belong to different generations and regions, they share a common emotional and conceptual foundation that transforms the suite into a harmonious and evocative harmony. “The theme of home, and this connection to materials rooted in memory and tradition, connects them,” Jaafar says. “This is what unites them within one suite. So, even though there are five distinct artistic voices, they ultimately express a common mood. They are, to some extent, singing in harmony. They have different voices, but they sing to the same tune.” However, the pavilion’s intentionally open narrative is intended to resonate beyond cultural specificity. “Home is not always a happy place, or an unhappy place, but remembering it is always deeply charged. It carries emotional intensity.”
The theme of homeland itself was also chosen because it is not just about India but is relevant at the global level. “We are all on the move more than ever, whether for education, work or personal reasons. We are all, in different ways, isolated. I wanted visitors to understand the Indian condition, especially the condition of the Indian diaspora,” Jafar explains. “Indians represent approximately 18 percent of the world’s population. This pavilion speaks to a wide range of people – but ultimately, it addresses a global human condition.”
Distance also becomes a physical and emotional state. “So there is a lot of metaphor in both the language and the project itself,” he says. “Visitors are invited to absorb their experience.” “The goal is to create resonance. Each visitor will bring their own memories, their own emotional history, and their own sense of distance. What they take with them will be completely personal.”
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