MARGARET WHYTE TURNS FRAGILITY INTO LANGUAGE AT THE 2026 VENICE BIENNALE

The Uruguay Pavilion presents ANTIFRAGIL, a new installation work by artist Margaret Whyte and curator Patricia Bentancur at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, running from May 9 to November 22, 2026 (pre-opening: May 6–8, 2026).

The concept of antifragility, developed by Nassim Taleb, describes systems that not only survive disorder and instability, but grow stronger and more adaptable because of them. Margaret Whyte's work embodies this idea. Her practice emerges from tension, error, and vulnerability, using them as creative forces. Rather than attempting to eliminate chaos, she works with it, transforming uncertainty into a powerful and poetic form of resistance that expands the way we see and understand the world.

ANTIFRAGIL brings together elements from different systems, allowing them to influence and transform one another. Textiles are combined with obsolete technological objects — old machines, motorcycle helmets, and fragments of waste. Together they form an assemblage that gains strength and intensity through the friction between its parts. These connections also suggest a way of thinking about the political, evoking Arthur Danto's reflections on the relationship between art and philosophy. "The materials I work with carry histories of use, affection, and exhaustion. When they encounter industrial and technological remnants, they do not illustrate fragility — they reveal another form of resistance," says Margaret Whyte.

The artist has developed a pioneering body of work, distinguished by both its conceptual strategies and formal decisions. Focused on social and gender issues, her expansive practice resists all restriction or simplification, claiming an essential place in the analysis of art history from a South American perspective. Whyte situates these concerns within a broader spatial and sculptural investigation, challenging traditional hierarchies between craft and contemporary art.

For curator Bentancur, ANTIFRAGIL positions weaving and assembling as political technologies of protest and affiliation. The act of interlacing fragments becomes a model for thinking — articulating relationships and proposing plural narratives that move beyond singular genealogies. Through this project, the Uruguay Pavilion reflects on how alternative geographies and critical perspectives can transform not only artistic repertoires, but also modes of exhibition and knowledge production.

"Margaret Whyte's presence in Venice affirms the sustained relevance of a practice developed over time, in which fragility becomes language and experience becomes matter, projecting from Uruguay a singular voice onto the international stage," says Maru Vidal, National Director of Culture at the Ministry of Education and Culture.