The 25th Biennale of Sydney Opens with Rememory: A Profound Exploration of Reclaimed Histories and Collective Memory
Sydney awoke today to the launch of the 25th Biennale of Sydney, titled Rememory, a sweeping, free-to-the-public international contemporary art event that transforms the city into a living archive of reclaimed narratives. Running from March 14 to June 14, 2026, across five major venues—including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, White Bay Power Station, Campbelltown Arts Centre, the Chau Chak Wing Museum, and additional sites from the Nepean River to Sydney Harbour—the biennale arrives at a moment of global reckoning with identity, belonging, and the stories we choose to preserve or forget.
Curated by the internationally acclaimed Artistic Director Hoor Al Qasimi, Rememory draws its title and conceptual core from Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s evocative term: the act of revisiting, reconstructing, and reclaiming histories that have been erased, repressed, or marginalized. “Rememory” is not mere nostalgia; it is an active intervention—an intersection of personal recollection and collective history where fragments of the past are reassembled to forge new understandings of who we are and where we belong.
The edition amplifies voices from First Nations communities and diasporic populations shaping contemporary Australia, while engaging artists from 32 countries in reflections on migration, exile, cultural displacement, and resilience. With 83 participating artists, collectives, and collaborations—including Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme (USA/Palestine), Nikesha Breeze, Dread Scott, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Chang En-Man, Behrouz Boochani with Hoda Afshar and Vernon Ah Kee, Abdul Abdullah, Dennis Golding, and Richard Bell—the biennale presents large-scale installations, site-specific projects, performances, and immersive works that bridge intimate memory with broader geopolitical realities.
Standout highlights include Chang En-Man’s The Future is the Past, the Path to the Ancestral Spirits (2026) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a suspended ring of mulberry bark embroidered with Paiwan Indigenous texts that evokes ancestral pathways and cyclical time. At White Bay Power Station, Cannupa Hanska Luger’s Volume III features seven ceramic dingo skulls equipped with mechanical “lungs” that produce haunting whistle sounds echoing through the industrial space—a work that has taken on unexpected resonance following recent news of a tragic incident involving dingoes off Queensland’s coast. Palestinian artist Khalil Rabah’s textile Common Threads reinterprets a displaced Byzantine mosaic in tatreez embroidery, reclaiming heritage from colonial collecting practices.
The opening weekend (March 14–15) bursts with free public programming: performances, artist talks, activations, and a celebratory concert at White Bay Power Station on March 13. Highlights feature Ngurrara cultural leaders presenting Ngurrara Canvas II, a powerful expression of Western Desert knowledge, alongside contributions from Pitjantjatjara elder Frank Young and Aṉangu performers in the Kuḻaṯa Tjuṯa project.
Critics and visitors alike describe the edition as timely and expansive, threading personal and communal threads across Sydney’s diverse landscapes. As one early review notes, the biennale feels like “a constellation of scattered fragments,” yet one that powerfully reconnects audiences to suppressed histories and emerging solidarities.
In an era when memory is increasingly contested—through digital archives, political revisionism, and cultural erasure—Rememory stands as a vital reminder of art’s capacity to heal, challenge, and reimagine. Free and accessible, it invites everyone to participate in the ongoing work of remembering differently.
For full artist lists, venue details, and programming, visit biennaleofsydney.art. The conversation has only just begun.
