India's Third Venice Biennale Pavilion Explores Home Through Organic Materials

The National Pavilion of India at the 61st Venice Biennale, curated by Dr. Amin Jaffer, features five artists exploring the concept of home through organic materials and indigenous practices. Titled 'Geographies of Distance: remembering home,' the exhibition includes works by Alwar Balasubramaniam (Bala), Skarma Sonam Tashi, Asim Waqif, Sumakshi Singh, and Ranjani Shettar. Bala uses earth from his studio site in Tamil Nadu to create cracked-earth panels, while Tashi documents Ladakhi vernacular architecture with recycled board and clay. Waqif's bamboo installation references urban scaffolding, and Singh recreates her demolished family home using thread. Shettar incorporates handwoven fabric and lacquerware, inspired by rural Karnataka. The pavilion, located in the Arsenale, marks India's third official participation in the Biennale's 131-year history, following 2011 and 2019. Jaffer, an art historian and curator for the Al Thani Collection, draws on his own diaspora background to frame home as a multispecies, land-based concept, contrasting with the Biennale's contested national pavilion model amid protests over Israel and Russia's inclusion.