Lebanese Artist to Represent Australia at Venice Biennale
Resumen
In r/Lebanon, this announcement covers a Tripoli-born artist who fled Lebanon’s civil war as a child and will represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale. The story highlights migration, family ties, and a vision of inclusivity and cultural unity, themes with deep resonance for the Lebanese community.
"Khaled Sabsabi, artist who fled civil war in Lebanon as a child, will represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale" Khaled Trablousi artist has Vision of Inclusivity, Cultural Unity, & Multicultural Storytelling Under Curation of Michael Dagostino
Khaled Sabsabi, artist who fled civil war in Lebanon as a child, will represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale
Sabsabi’s curator will be Michael Dagostino, who also came up through the multicultural western Sydney arts scene
Elizabeth Fortescue
7 February 2025
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Sabsabi has hinted that his work will be an “an inclusive place...to bring people together”
Khaled Sabsabi photographed by Anna Kucera
Sabsabi has hinted that his work will be an “an inclusive place...to bring people together”
Khaled Sabsabi photographed by Anna Kucera
Khaled Sabsabi, who was a child when he and his family sheltered from bombs and snipers during the Lebanese civil war, will represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
The announcement was made earlier today by Creative Australia chief executive officer Adrian Collette at Parramatta Artists Studios in Granville—a tough suburb when Sabsabi grew up there, and where his parents ran a video store.
“The video shop and music business that they had specialised in Arabic music, and they had an extensive collection and this formed partly my experience of who I am,” Sabsabi said at the announcement.
While Tripoli-born Sabsabi was able to live in peace after his family migrated to Sydney in 1976, the artist said he still has family connections to the current horror being enacted in the Middle East. His family includes some Palestinian people, although they live in either Lebanon or Australia, not in Gaza.
Asked if the dire situation in Gaza had consciously or unconsciously seeped into the work he plans for Venice, Sabsabi said: “We have tough skin, but you do get bruised. How can you not be affected when you have family, when you have friends, when your family has inter-married with Palestinian people? We need a way forward.”
Sabsabi’s Venice project is strictly under wraps, but he has hinted that it will be “an inclusive place”. The artist said: “It’s a place to bring people together. I like to use the word ‘nurturing’. Looking at my art-making DNA you can see that it will mo...
Post Author: /u/EreshkigalKish2
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