REMEMORY 2026: SYDNEY BIENNALE UNVEILS ARTISTS AND WORKS ILLUMINATING SUPPRESSED HISTORIES
The 25th edition, curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, announced new projects which will explore memory and history through works from around the world.
The Biennale of Sydney is preparing for its 25th edition, Rememory, running from March 14 to June 14, 2026, free to the public. Led by curator Hoor Al Qasimi, the exhibition takes its name from author Toni Morrison and offers a journey through memory and history, highlighting forgotten or repressed narratives alongside contemporary experiences. This edition stands out for its diverse participants: artists from Australia and 31 other countries will reflect on their roots while engaging with Sydney’s histories and communities.
Among the first announced projects, interdisciplinary artist Nikesha Breeze will present Living Histories, an immersive installation at White Bay Power Station amplifying accounts of enslaved African Americans in the Antebellum South, displayed among fabric columns inspired by the African baobab tree. Painter Nancy Yukuwal McDinny will produce a monumental mural documenting the historical and contemporary resonance of conflict between First Nations communities and colonial forces in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
-
Nikesha Breeze, 108 Death Masks: A Communal Prayer for Peace and Justice (installation view) 2024, bronze. Commissioned by the Equal Justice Initiative: Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. Photograph: Kate Russell @ Kate Russell. Courtesy of the artist (Biennale of Sydney)
-
Nancy (Yukuwal) McDinny, Palm Island to Townsville (from the We Are Still Here series), 2024, acrylic and ink on canvas, 216 x 245cm. Photograph: Michael Marzik. Courtesy of the artist and Karen Brown Fine Art. (Biennale of Sydney)
Eritrean artist Nahom Teklehaimanot will exhibit three large-scale canvases titled This Is My Silence You Name the Sound, exploring the refugee experience. Senior Anangu artist Frank Young will lead the latest version of the Kulata Tjuta Project, installing hand-carved spears celebrating fifteen years of sustaining Indigenous knowledge and traditions.
Other works include the multi-channel video Code Black/Riot by Behrouz Boochani, Hoda Afshar, and Vernon Ah Kee, centering Indigenous youth in detention; a human migration installation by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige; a native plant garden by Wendy Hubert; Monica Rani-Rudhar’s multichannel video exploring intergenerational trauma; sculptural works by Benjamin Work and Warraba Weatherall; and Joseph Namy’s sound installation Automobile.
-
Kulata Tjuta, Kulata Tjuta (installation view, from the series Black Mist), 2017, 1000 spears with coolamon, Mulga, spearwood, spinifex resin, kangaroo tendon, 6 channel DVD with sound dimensions. Photograph: Saul Steed. Courtesy of the artist and APY Art Centre Collective. Copyright APY Art Centre Collective. (Biennale of Sydney)
-
Hoda Afshar and Vernon Ah Kee, still from Code Black/Riot, 2025. Four-channel digital video, colour, sound, 33 minutes. Courtesy of the
artists and Milani Gallery. Photographer: Hoda Afshar. @ Hoda Afshar & Vernon Ah Kee. (Biennale of Sydney) -
Benjamin Work, Hala Otitori, 2024, Aluminium, 300cm x 200cm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett. Courtesy of the artist and Parehuia, McCahon House Residency. (Biennale of Sydney)
Hoor Al Qasimi emphasized: “Working with artists to bring Rememory to life, I am struck by the profound timeliness of this edition. The Biennale has always been a site for the most vital, urgent, and resonant art of its moment. This edition feels especially present as Rememory turns to the written, visual, and oral histories of culture, context, family, and country. I am deeply honoured to collaborate with extraordinary artists, accompany them in their processes, and collectively honour Toni Morrison’s words. Together, we illuminate the overlooked and forgotten histories upon which the world is built.”
Rememory will run from March 14 to June 14, 2026 at Level 4/10 Hickson Rd, The Rocks, The Arts Exchange, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia.
Related Topics
May interest you
BRAZIL ANNOUNCES ROSANA PAULINO AND ADRIANA VAREJÃO FOR ITS PAVILION AT THE 2026 VENICE BIENNALE
Curated by Diane Lima, the project Comigo ninguém pode will bring together two of the most powerful voices in contemporary Brazilian art around themes of colonial memory, resilience, and poetic imagination in Brazil’s Pavilion.
BIENNALE OF SYDNEY 2026: “HISTORY VERSUS MEMORY”
Rememory, as coined by Toni Morrison in her novel Beloved is the theme and title for the 25th edition of the Biennale of Sydney, which will take place from March 17 until June 17, 2026. Expanding from the understanding of memory as information retention with the passing of time, rememory works in the dark, from the residues and amputations of the past. In Morrison’s own context and research, it relates to chronicling African American history and how it upturns what is canonised as American history.
INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA IN JAPAN: FIRST NATIONS WOMEN ARTISTS ON VIEW
The work of First Nations artists from Australia is being given more importance and exposure than before as part of the recent international trend in contemporary art to reconsider works created in deeply rooted regional contexts.
THROUGH DESIGN AND IMAGINATION, ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE
ArtScience Museum in Singapore presents an exhibition that invites society to co-create the future from hope and creativity.
