Faig Ahmed has been selected to represent Azerbaijan at the 61st Venice Biennale.
Entitled The Attention, the country’s pavilion will feature a solo representation of newly commissioned works by the artist. The exhibition will be curated by historian Gwendolyn Collaço and will take place at the Campo de la Tana in the Castello district of Venice.
Ahmed will present a group of new site-specific works that will examine perception and systems of meaning through textile, sound and technology-based elements. The presentation focuses on carpets as a central element to the artist’s practice, drawing on traditional weaving techniques while incorporating digital processes and data-driven systems. The works reference philosophical and scientific ideas, including the Sufi concept of Fana and parallels between mysticism and quantum physics.
Among the works on view will be I Can Contain Both Worlds but I Do Not Fit Into This One (2026), a large-scale carpet installation that will extend across the rooms of the pavilion, connecting the exhibition’s different elements. Another work, Entropy Alter (2026), uses a quantum chip to generate sequences of generic numbers that are translated into streams of language and visual patterns.
Born in the coastal city of Sumqayit in 1982, Ahmed lives and works in Baku. His practice spans installation, video and research-based projects that examine the relationship between traditional craft and contemporary visual culture. Ahmed had previously participated in Azerbaijan’s inaugural pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007.
The 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will run from 9 May to 22 November 2026
