UNSEEN. Seeing Differently

Non solo recuperare l'invisibile come assenza, ma anche invito a riflettere sulla politica dell'attenzione - come vediamo, e come alcune storie rimangono nell'ombra. A cura di Amy Jackson/ Groves Gong.

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Curated by artist Amy Jackson, with Groves Gong as Academic Curator, the exhibition is shaped by a distinctive approach: it does not seek to simply recover the invisible as a lost object, but asks us to reflect on the politics of attention itself—how we see, and why certain stories remain in the shadows. The exhibition expands the methods and connotations of the exquisite corpse, integrating the interactivity of online and offline exhibitions, allowing art to be seen and discussed in more ways.

“We are bringing artists together to ask not only what we see, but how and why we see it—and what happens when we share those perspectives with one another,” says Jackson. “It is an experiment in seeing differently, together.”

“The unseen is not necessarily absent,” notes Gong. “It lingers in visual signs, in architectural traces, in collective memory. This exhibition asks how contemporary artists can make those buried histories perceptible—and how art might act as a bridge between peoples, cultures, and temporalities.”

Venice—a city built on water, migration, and mercantile encounter—provides an achingly resonant backdrop. Its layered surfaces and labyrinthine geography have long made it a site of both spectacle and mystery. During the Biennale, Unseen adds a new layer: it turns the visitor’s gaze toward the margins of the city’s grand narrative, inviting us to consider which stories have been allowed to shine, and which have remained submerged.

Central to the exhibition is intersubjectivity—the charged space between viewer and artwork, artist and context, cultures in conversation. The works do not simply present; they invite, exchange, and reimagine. Headline artist Fion Gunn echoes this: “For me, Unseen is about generating a genuine dialogue between distinct visual languages and lived experiences. Venice, as a meeting point of East and West, past and future, is the ideal place for that conversation to unfold.”

With a programme that interweaves critical dialogue with sensory encounter, Unseen positions itself as more than an exhibition—it is a platform for new forms of looking, listening, and connecting. By placing the overlooked at the centre of the frame, it invites audiences to become thoughtful participants in the construction of meaning, and to recognise that what remains hidden often has the most to offer.

Headliners:

Alison Little, Clee Claire Lee, Cinematiks（Leslie Streit and Robin McCain）, Emaan Pirzada, Haylee-Louise Hollohan, Helen Lom, Jill Gibson, Jiyont Kym, Manuela Johanna Covini, Nicol Breeze, Peter Brandt, Raykhan Laing, Soil, Suzy O’Mullane, Tanya Xmyra, Tracy Harris, Wendy Couchman, Xiyu Wang, Xu Xiaowei, Yagmur Karaman.

Participant artists:

Aisha Fatima, Alex Comaniciu, Andrew Ustinov, Andy LeBlanc, April Lisa, Arthur Jacoby, Bahar Talebi Najafabadi, Bug, Buku Sarkar, Carly Roach, Carol Burns, Claudia Ungersbäck, David Faulkner, Dex Hannon, Egli Petta, Elena Shcherbina, Elizabeth Benson, Fan Zhen, Gao Guanyi, Geraldine Leahy, Glyn Jones, Helen Jones, Holly Nerreter, Jen Cable, Jiayue Wang, Jingyun Guan, John Crawshaw, Judy Sale, Juli Fejer, Julia Alexandra Beer, Julia iSABEL, Jun Iwase, Karen Shakespeare, Karen Williams, Kate Peel, Katrina Rawcliffe, Laura Jagger, Leslie Streit, Linda Cassels, Lou Liska, Lynn Pan, Maria Chrisá, Mei Lock, Muchuan Chen, Natasha Abrahams, Olena Hrynevych, Quin de la Mer, Rick and Sue Lord, Ringgit Juliana Siahaan, Robin McCain, Rosalind Stoddart, Rosie Burns, Sally Spinks, Samiya Younis, Sandra Chen Weinstein, Sara Choudhrey, Shanali Perera, Sheetal Durve, Stephanie Jaffe, Susan Williams, Sylvie Gral, Tabitha Curtis, Ursula Vargas, Vian Borchert, Xie Shan