Syria’s 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’s leading contemporary artists, reflecting a renewed cultural direction as the country moves into a new post-war phase.
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—or that she would find herself living through what she describes as the country’s rebirth. She is wasting no time in taking it in. Walking its streets, she says, she is rediscovering its beauty “again and again and again”, along with a renewed sense of belonging. “It’s a new country and I’m very pleased and I’m very happy to be able to be part of this change,” Shamma says.
That renewed sense of connection underpins her presentation, The Tower Tomb of Palmyra, curated by Yuko Hasegawa and commissioned by Syria’s 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—destroyed by Islamic State in 2015—and responds to both cultural loss and the possibility of reconstruction. It also alludes to the widespread looting of Syrian artefacts during the war. “All these [funerary] towers have been destroyed, so I decided to create one,” she says.
The Syria pavilion will include Untitled (2026), one of 18 new paintings by Sara Shamma
Courtesy of Sara Shamma
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. “There’s no life without death,” she says. “For me, that’s the re-creation of our country.”
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 “perfect” for the pavilion. “I want to shed light on the good parts of Syria,” she says.
Human gestures
Known for her psychologically charged figurative paintings, Shamma’s practice centres on close observation of the human body—gestures, expressions, even the smallest movements of the eye—often 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 “penetrate the subconscious mind” of the viewer. “I want the viewer to go outside the exhibition as a different person.”
For Shamma, the work is ultimately inseparable from a larger moment of change in Syria. “This 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.”
• Università luav di Venezia, Cotonificio, Dorsoduro 2196
