Dr Amin Jaffer on India’s return to the Venice Biennale following a seven-year hiatus

The title of the India Pavilion is Geographies of Distance: remembering home. Can you explain what that means?

The idea reflects a longstanding personal and academic interest in how home is transformed by distance and environment. It’s not just about looking at India from a distance in the diasporic sense, although that is certainly part of it — and it’s part of my own story. The idea of dislocation and movement also applies within India itself. Cities are changing so rapidly that places people once knew are disappearing. You can spend your whole life in an Indian city like Bengaluru (Bangalore) or Hyderabad and still feel like it’s no longer the place you grew up in.

So there are two dimensions. One is the diaspora — how you maintain a sense of home when you are geographically far away. The other is what happens when you’re physically in India but the environment around you has changed so much that it feels unfamiliar.

How does that dual experience shape the theme of the pavilion?

The pavilion asks whether home is a physical place or a psychological and emotional condition. If you look at Indian communities around the world — whether in the UK, California, Malaysia or Hong Kong — you see that cultural identity remains very strong across generations. Food, language, music, clothing — all of these persist.

At the same time, people living in India are also negotiating change, so the idea of home becomes quite complex. It’s not fixed — it’s something that exists in memory, in habit, in emotion.

Does this reflect your own background?

Very much so. I was born in Rwanda but always felt deeply Indian. That sense of distance combined with belonging has shaped a lot of my thinking. I’ve spent decades exploring the idea of home — through my academic work on interiors, architecture and lifestyle.

I’ve looked at how Indians have adapted to Western modes of living, and also how Europeans historically adapted to India. The question of ‘What is home?’ has been central to my work for a long time.

You have said that the concept for the pavilion crystallised around an installation by Sumakshi Singh. Can you tell us about it?

Sumakshi Singh is a Delhi-based contemporary artist who grew up all over India because of the peripatetic nature of her father’s job. She lived in 11 different states, but always came back to her grandparents’ house in Delhi, which they built after Partition. It was her emotional anchor.

After her grandparents passed away, the house was demolished — a very common story in India due to rising land values. For her, it was heartbreaking, so she measured the house and rebuilt it in thread.

It’s incredibly moving, because it represents something that no longer exists physically but continues to exist emotionally. It is not just about a house, it is about mobility, migration, dislocation, and this is central to the Indian story.

Why was thread such an important choice of material for this work?

Thread is deeply significant in India — it is the basis of our civilisation. India is a textile-based economy. It’s the place where muslin, silk, cashmere, calico and dye are developed and exported to Europe. Today, India is still embroidering for all the fashion houses: Christian Dior, Valentino, Gucci.

Thread carries symbolism. Whether it’s the colour, the weave or the way of wearing it, it’s about continuity, labour, identity. So using thread to recreate a house isn’t just poetic — it’s culturally loaded. It connects the personal story of the artist to a much broader civilisational history.

Can you walk us through the artworks that will be in the pavilion?

The pavilion is located in the Arsenale, in a late-medieval warehouse space. When you enter, you first encounter two panels of earth created by Alwar Balasubramaniam. The soil comes from the Tamil Nadu region, which is where his studio is based. It is about the fact that we take the earth for granted, but soil is also fragile and vulnerable to over-harvesting and changes in the environment.

So we start with the ground beneath our feet. Then we move into the main space. On one side is Sumakshi Singh’s thread house, and on the other is a suspended installation by Ranjani Shettar that feels almost like Alice in Wonderland — her work reflects on the rhythms of the natural world. Upstairs, there’s a project by Skarma Sonam Tashi from Ladakh. Tashi is very interested in the shift from traditional architecture to modern building practices, what that means for people’s relationship to the land, and how they can become divorced from the landscape they originally inhabited.

Finally, there’s an installation by Asim Waqif — a kind of exploded scaffolding structure made from bamboo. India is a country that is constantly evolving. Scaffolding is everywhere — you see buildings being constructed all the time. It makes you think about what was there before and what will replace it.

So while the pavilion is rooted in nostalgia, it’s also about movement and transformation. A leap into the future.

What conclusions have you drawn through working on this project?

Several things: that India is both deeply rooted in its past through its traditions and very open to the future. Those two things coexist. And that you can be geographically distant from India and still feel completely connected to it. And equally, you can be in India and feel a sense of dislocation. So home is not just a place — it’s something internal.

India is returning to the Venice Biennale after a hiatus of seven years. You’ve spoken about re-engaging with the event in a ‘meaningful way’. What does that mean?

Indian artists have always been present at the Biennale in different ways — through independent exhibitions or collateral events. But a national pavilion is different. It represents an official commitment. It’s the government actively showcasing the country’s creative talent and engaging with the Biennale at an institutional level. That’s what I mean by meaningful — it’s a deeper level of participation.

Does the project also extend beyond the pavilion?

Yes, we’ve organised a series of performances and events across Venice, led in part by Serendipity Arts. These include music, dance and poetry, often tied to the themes or materials of the pavilion.

For example, there will be a literary recitation, and we are planning to have string-based music responding to the thread installation, and instruments made from bamboo that reflect Asim Waqif’s installation. There will be performances exploring ideas of home and migration. Some will be traditional, others contemporary.

Finally, what do you hope visitors take away from the pavilion?

I hope they connect with it on a personal level. The works are abstract enough that anyone can relate to them. You don’t have to be Indian to think about your own idea of home.

Geographies of Distance: remembering home opens at the Arsenale on 9 May 2026

The 61st Venice Biennale is led by the International Art Exhibition In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh, on show at the Arsenale, the Giardini and various locations around the city (9 May to 22 November)