Sara Shamma has been selected to represent Syria at the 61st Venice Biennale. The Syrian pavilion, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, will be curated by Yuko Hasegawa and will be on display in the open-air courtyard of the Università IUAV di Venezia (University Institute of Architecture of Venice), Cotonificio campus.
Shamma will unveil The Tower Tomb of Palmyra, a multimedia exhibition comprising an immersive installation that takes inspiration from the old funerary towers of Palmyra, large-scale mausoleums built for families that towered over the desert and were demolished during the Syrian War. A multisensory experience, the exhibition will merge scents, sounds, light, architectural elements and painting while delving into the history of Palmyra and drawing on Syria’s rich cultural heritage. The pavilion also draws attention to the looting of antiquities and artefacts which occurred during the war between 2011 and 2024, calling for these items to be returned.
Syria’s participation in the upcoming Venice Biennale underscores the country’s renewed cultural engagement on the international art scene in the wake of the previous decade’s political upheaval. This year’s pavilion will depart from previous editions, which showcased groups of artists in favour of a solo artist presentation.
“Through The Tower Tomb of Palmyra, I aim to honour Syria’s cultural heritage and the resilience of its people. Palmyra’s towers, though destroyed, continue to speak to the strength and diversity of our history. This exhibition is not only a reflection on loss, but a message of hope, unity, and the importance of protecting and restoring our shared heritage”, explains Shamma.
Shamma is one of the foremost contemporary artists from Syria, who has exhibited widely on the international stage with over 25 solo exhibitions, including Echoes of 12 Years at the National Museum of Damascus from 2024 to 2025, Bold Spirits at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London in 2023 and Modern Slavery at King’s College London and cathedrals across the UK from 2019 to 2021, among others. The artist is known for centring the human condition in her practice through emotionally expressive figure painting. Shamma’s work has been collected by major public institutions such as the British Council, the UAE Ministry of Culture as well as numerous private collections.
Yuko Hasegawa, the curator of the pavilion, is an art critic, curator and professor who previously directed the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa. In addition to curating a wide range of international exhibitions and biennales which include projects in Istanbul, Shanghai, São Paulo, Sharjah, Moscow and Thailand, Hasegawa has also been widely recognised for her contributions to the arts through a number of international art awards, among them the insignia of Officier in the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2015 and Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award in Japan in 2020.
The 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will run from 9 May to 22 November 2026
