Somalia Pavilion 2026: SADDEXLEEY

The Federal Republic of Somalia announces its first National Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Open to the public from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at Palazzo Caboto, Venice. About The exhibition brings together Ayan Farah, Asmaa Jamaa and Warsan Shire. This marks Somalia’s inaugural presentation on a dedicated national platform at the Biennale. Internationally recognized as the “Nation of Poets”, Somalia presents a Pavilion unfolding across three floors in a triadic rhythm: three artists, three registers, three strands of relation. Titled SADDEXLEEY (sa-DEH-ley), the Pavilion takes its name from a Somali poetic form shaped through triadic composition. Derived from saddex (sa-DEH), meaning three, it describes a generative logic in which meaning unfolds through repetition, variation, and relation. Rooted in Somalia’s oral tradition, where poetry functions as social architecture and lived philosophy, the exhibition spatializes poetic form in resonance with Koyo Kouoh’s theme In Minor Keys. Word, sound, and matter converge as a living poem, oscillating between fragility and endurance. SADDEXLEEY proposes belonging not as a declaration, but as sensation. Working across geographies, languages, and disciplines, the artists explore memory and inheritance through textile, poetry, and film. Ayan Farah engages textiles and sediment as carriers of time, allowing material to hold what cannot be spoken directly. Asmaa Jama works across film, performance, and archival gestures to question how heritage is documented and reactivated in space. Warsan Shire’s poetry gives voice to displacement and intimacy, shaping language as both witness and archive. Together, their practices converge through rhythm, matter, and voice. Memory is not narrated. It is felt. Poetry has long operated as Somalia’s social architecture, structuring thought, transmission, and collective memory. Rather than presenting poetry as content, the pavilion adopts poetic structure as methodology, organizing space and perception as an extension of that living tradition - an approach developed by curators Mohamed Mire and Fabio Scrivanti. The Pavilion is hosted at Palazzo Caboto, positioned between the Giardini della Biennale and the Arsenale at the intersection of three streets: Riva degli Schiavoni, Riva dei Sette Martiri and Via Garibaldi. The National Pavilion of Somalia is commissioned by Abdirahman Yusuf Mohamud, acting as Cultural Advisor under the mandate of the Office of the Prime Minister of Somalia, and realized with the support of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Somalia, with Galerie Nordenhake and Galerie Kadel Willborn as lead partners, and with additional support from private contributors. Read more Toggle Installation