Timor-Leste Will Be Present at the 61st Venice Biennale and Invites Timorese Artists to Apply by 15 July
Following the success of its inaugural presentation, Timor-Leste is pleased to announce its participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia from May 9 to November 22, 2026. Strategically located between Australia and Indonesia, at the eastern end of the Indian Ocean, Timor-Leste is Southeast Asia's youngest nation and will be granted full ASEAN membership in October this year. As a fledging nation, Timor-Leste is proud to present the richness of its art and culture on the world stage in Venice.
The 2026 Timor-Leste Pavilion is commissioned by the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, and will be curated by independent scholar and curator of Southeast Asian contemporary art, Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani.
Responding to La Biennale di Venezia's overarching theme In Minor Keys, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, the curatorial framework of the Timor-Leste Pavilion will center on the reclamation of quiet voices and the preservation of traditions - to love again, sotto voce and with passion. Leaving behind the country's violent past, the Timor-Leste Pavilion moves on to a new future.
Commissioner Jorge Sores Cristovão, Timor-Leste's Secretary of State for Arts and Culture, was pleased to appoint Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani as curator of Timor-Leste's second exhibition in Venice. "Loredana brings to the position an extensive experience in world-class contemporary art exhibitions and an ongoing commitment to the voice and point of view of Asian artists."
"I am honoured to build on the achievements of Timor-Leste at the Venice Biennale 2024 and to continue to create awareness of Timor-Leste's rich creative legacy," Pazzini-Paracciani said.
The appointment of the Curator of the Timor-Leste Pavilion coincides with the launch of a global invitation to artists with Timor-Leste nationality to submit their portfolios for consideration for the 2026 exhibition in Venice, via an Open Call process. “We hope that, through this process, we engage with artists from the Timor-Leste diaspora. This is an unprecedented opportunity for artists to become a vital new voice in the unfolding story of Timor-Leste," Pazzini-Paracciani said. “We invite Timor-Leste artists based everywhere to submit their portfolios here.: https://forms.gle/tPTTMpy5h6Uijner8
Applicants must be 25 years old or above. Application must be completed in English - Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed
The Open Call runs from June 15 to July 15, 2025.
Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani is an Italian curator who has lived in Southeast Asia, and researched Southeast Asian history for the last 25 years. One of the curators of the Bangkok Art Biennale's third edition, Pazzini-Paracciani is a prolific writer and editor. Her research and curatorial practice revolve around critical sociopolitical issues, advocating a counter-hegemonic and non-Western-centric discourse. She has contributed to numerous exhibitions, publications and research projects across Asia, UK and US, including Disobedient Bodies: Reclaiming Her at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore (2025); Matrilineal at 100 Tonson Foundation, Bangkok, Thailand (2024); Dejä vu: When the Sun Rises in the West at Art Centre, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (2022); Homecoming/Eventually at UP Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines (2021); Diaspora: Exit, Exile, Exodus of Southeast Asia at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand (2019); and Architectural Landscapes: SEA in the Forefront for In ToAsia: Time Based Art Festival 2015 at Queens Museum, New York, USA. In 2020, together with Patrick D. Flores, she co-edited the anthology Interlaced Journeys: Diaspora and the Contemporary in Southeast Asian Art, published by Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong.
Commissioner: Jorge Soares Cristovão, Secretary of State for Arts and Culture of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
Curator: Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani
Organizer: Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture, Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
Advisors: Dr Kim McGrath, Dr Maria Madeira, Prof Dr Apinan Poshyananda, Simon Fenby
For further information regarding the open call:
TimorLesteOpenCall2026@gmail.com
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