Venice as a Space of Encounter

Over 150 artists from more than 30 countries will gather in Venice, bringing together visual artists, photographers, sculptors, performers, universities, and artist collectives, both established and emerging. Within the unique setting of the Venetian lagoon, Personal Structures 2026 serves as a shared space for dialogue, experimentation, and exchange. In a society marked by fractures, displacement, and accelerated transformation, Personal Structures – Confluences emerges as a space for encounter. It is a place where artistic practices, cultures, and disciplines intersect, contaminate one another, and generate new possibilities for coexistence. As Sara Danieli, Head of Art for ECC Italy, explains: “In an era characterised by profound global transformations, Personal Structures – Confluences explores how personal narratives build ties with collective ones, shaping an ever-evolving cultural landscape”. Artistic practices thus converge into a single flow, transforming and resonating with one another in a conscious dialogue with time and memory, “an invitation to rediscover the value of sharing and to imagine more open, sensitive, and sustainable forms of coexistence”.

A New Visual Identity Inspired by Nature

Inspired by the natural world, Personal Structures 2026 presents itself with a new graphic and visual identity that becomes an integral part of the exhibition project. Graphic and conceptual elements trace the encounter between different paths, artistic practices, and cultural backgrounds, giving shape to the biological, cultural, and experiential micro-confluences the exhibition aims to explore.
Artworks and languages intersect in a continuously transforming collective fabric, making the curatorial process visible and opening a space for reflection on present and future possibilities where society, nature, and technology engage in an ever-evolving dialogue.

Highlights at Palazzo Bembo

Among the highlights of this edition is the presence at Palazzo Bembo of the Japanese curatorial platform and gallery B-OWND. Interpreting the theme Confluences through the works of seven artists, the project spans art, craftsmanship, and hybrid practices, including a Tea Room hosting public tea ceremonies. Also at Palazzo Bembo, Brazilian photographer Sandra Cattaneo Adorno, who has already won an ECC Award, presents a new immersive installation. Within the same exhibition venue, the Special Project Unison by the Vienna-based artist Rita Sabo. Curated by Dr Tayfun Belgin, the exhibition weaves together fifteen cultures into a polyphonic field where past, present, and future coexist. Unison transforms painting, sculpture, installation, scent, and sound into a layered, multisensory environment, creating a transcultural space where art, consciousness, and global responsibility converge.

Palazzo Mora: Identity and Micro-Confluences

At Palazzo Mora, identity emerges from cultural and experiential micro-confluences. The Stephens Tapestry Studio from Eswatini, South Africa, will present two tapestries designed by the esteemed South African artist William Kentridge. The Stephens Tapestry Studio uses hand-spun and hand-dyed mohair to create monumental tapestries designed by artists across the globe. Moreover, a project curated by the Japanese gallery BALC will present a solo exhibition by South Korean artist G Sim Seyeon.

The same venue welcomes the El Salvador Pavilion, making its first appearance at the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, with the project Cartographies of the Displaced by the artist J. Oscar Molina, curated by Alejandra Cabezas. Also at Palazzo Mora, Adrian Elisheva Parr Zaretsky, known as A.Z, and Liu Shiming present Intimate Unthinkables. The project reflects on the ordinary dimension of women's lives, made up of fragile and powerful moments. Working in distinct styles, Liu Shiming and A.Z foreground the material realities of everyday life and the intimate forms of endurance embedded within it, bringing east and west, tradition and the contemporary world into dialogue. It is produced in collaboration with the Liu Shiming Art Foundation in New York.

PS Design: A New Section

Confluences frames this edition of Personal Structures and extends seamlessly into PS Design. Like converging streams that generate new currents, this new section explores how design intersects with art, architecture, and research to engage with and reinterpret contemporary societal, political, ecological, and material contexts. PS Design brings together projects that act as bridges across disciplines and cultures, shaping new relationships between humans, nature, and technology, while responding to the architectural and cultural identity of Venice.

ECC Awards 2026

All exhibited projects at Personal Structures – Confluences will be eligible for the ECC Award, the prize established by the European Cultural Centre Italy to recognise outstanding artistic and curatorial practices. For the 2026 edition, the ECC Awards introduce new categories that reflect the evolving complexity of contemporary art and the exhibition’s curatorial focus on convergence, exchange, and interdisciplinarity. The awards highlight practices that transform diversity into opportunities for encounter, place strong emphasis on research, social impact, site sensitivity, and cross-disciplinary approaches, and respond thoughtfully to the unique cultural and architectural context of Venice. The 2026 ECC Award categories include: Artistic Interpretation of the Theme: Confluences; Research & Curatorial Project; Space & Context Project; Cross-Disciplinary Project; Emerging Practice; Artist as Activist Special Award Recognition, selected by the ECC Italy Team. For further details, please visit the dedicated page.