![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6606aeb3b44bcbd0a9abe66bbf430d5f96a8d5c8-653x655.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nSyria\u2019s return to the Venice Biennale in 2026 comes with a shift in approach. For the first time, its national pavilion will centre on a single artist, Sara Shamma, one of Syria\u2019s leading contemporary artists, reflecting a renewed cultural direction as the country moves into a new post-war phase.<\/p>\n
That shift coincides with a moment of personal and national change for Shamma. When she returned to Syria in September 2024, after eight years of living between London and Damascus, she had no idea the Assad regime would fall within months\u2014or that she would find herself living through what she describes as the country\u2019s rebirth. She is wasting no time in taking it in. Walking its streets, she says, she is rediscovering its beauty \u201cagain and again and again\u201d, along with a renewed sense of belonging. \u201cIt\u2019s a new country and I\u2019m very pleased and I\u2019m very happy to be able to be part of this change,\u201d Shamma says.<\/p>\n
That renewed sense of connection underpins her presentation, The Tower Tomb of Palmyra, curated by Yuko Hasegawa and commissioned by Syria\u2019s ministry of culture. Conceived as an immersive installation combining painting, architecture, light, sound and scent, the project draws on the ancient funerary towers of Palmyra\u2014destroyed by Islamic State in 2015\u2014and responds to both cultural loss and the possibility of reconstruction. It also alludes to the widespread looting of Syrian artefacts during the war. \u201cAll these [funerary] towers have been destroyed, so I decided to create one,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Syria pavilion will include Untitled (2026), one of 18 new paintings by Sara Shamma<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Sara Shamma<\/p>\n
The installation is expected to centre on a large-scale architectural structure housing 18 new paintings, inviting visitors to move through the space. For Shamma, the gesture is both commemorative and forward-looking. \u201cThere\u2019s no life without death,\u201d she says. \u201cFor me, that\u2019s the re-creation of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project has been several years in the making. Initially developed around 2019 for a planned exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK, it was postponed during the pandemic. When the opportunity to represent Syria at the Biennale arose, she revived it, describing it as \u201cperfect\u201d for the pavilion. \u201cI want to shed light on the good parts of Syria,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Human gestures<\/p>\n
Known for her psychologically charged figurative paintings, Shamma\u2019s practice centres on close observation of the human body\u2014gestures, expressions, even the smallest movements of the eye\u2014often beginning with self-portraits. That approach is expected to carry through to the Venice presentation, albeit with new colours and techniques developed over nearly five months of work. Her aim, she says, is to reach beneath the surface of the image to \u201cpenetrate the subconscious mind\u201d of the viewer. \u201cI want the viewer to go outside the exhibition as a different person.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Shamma, the work is ultimately inseparable from a larger moment of change in Syria. \u201cThis is an opportunity that will never happen again. If we, all the Syrians, can understand this fact, we can recreate our country the way we want it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Universit\u00e0 luav di Venezia, Cotonificio, Dorsoduro\u00a02196<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Syria\u2019s return to the Venice Biennale in 2026 comes with a shift in approach. For the first time,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[36060,33690,1099,95,29303,11477],"class_list":{"0":"post-103667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-artist-interview","9":"tag-looting","10":"tag-sara-shamma","11":"tag-syria","12":"tag-syrian-war","13":"tag-venice-biennale-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116538102483627362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}