14/10/2026
🌍 How do you make a home in a new place? That is the central question of Lubaina Himid’s Predicting History: Testing Translation – the British Council’s commission for this year’s 61st International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia 🌍
Through a series of five monumental, multi-panel paintings – alongside several of her ‘kanga’ paintings, paintings on found objects and a soundscape created in collaboration with artist Magda Stawarska – the scenes Himid constructs extend beyond the painted surface into sound, architecture and the careful choreography of how we move, encounter and look.
Room One: In Architects, visitors see architectures from different climates, belief systems and histories.
Room Two: In Tailors, figures measure, cut and assemble garments that seem to move across time.
Room Three: In Chefs, a wash of pink partially fills the space, leaving areas deliberately unpainted, as if awaiting the next gesture.
Room Four: Twenty-one mismatched Oars line one wall of the pavilion.
Room Five: In Boatbuilders, a field of interlocking threads – vibrant orange, flat grey and apricot paints – catches the eye.
Room Six: In Gardeners, botanical illustrations from naturalists’ guides are rendered outsized and theatrical.
Visual identity: TEMPLO
📷: Eva Herzog
