site.btaBulgarian Pavilion at 2026 Venice Art Biennale Envisioned as Fictional Research Lab Headquarters

The Bulgarian pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale is conceived as the headquarters of a fictional research laboratory. It is structured within a single timeline encompassing the past, present, and future, said Martina Yordanova, curator of the project The Federation of Minor Practices, at a news conference at the BTA National Press Club on Tuesday. The event officially presented the installation with which Bulgaria will participate in the 61st Venice Art Biennale.

The news conference was also attended by Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva, chair of the jury; National Gallery Director Aneliya Nikolaeva; Irina Dakova, head of the Museums, Galleries and Visual Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture; and Desislava Dimova, commissioner of the pavilion. Joining online were the authors of The Federation of Minor Practices - Veneta Androva, Gery Georgieva, Maria Nalbantova, and Rayna Teneva.

Irina Dakova said that Bulgaria’s participation in the Venice Biennale is a key element of the state’s policy for the international promotion of Bulgarian contemporary art. She added that the procedure is carried out under a clearly defined framework, updated in 2023 and guaranteeing transparency and consistency in the project selection process.

Following a Council of Ministers decision, the open call was officially announced in November, and a total of 23 project proposals were submitted within a month. A seven-member jury reviewed the eligible projects and, after intensive discussions, selected The Federation of Minor Practices as the winning proposal, Dakova said.

Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva noted that this year saw the highest number of submitted projects. "Interest is clearly growing over time," she said. In her words, there were a highly contested selection process and lengthy discussions among the jury members this year. Kuyumdzhieva said that The Federation of Minor Practices stood out for its "exceptionally high level of content," the quality of the selected works, and "the remarkable ambition expressed by the authors." She noted that these are new works that will be presented to the public for the first time in Venice.

The chair of the jury said that the other projects in the top three were of comparable quality to the winning entry. Second place went to the project Rehearsal, curated by Vessela Nozharova and created by Kalin Serapionov, while third place was awarded to Custos, curated by Peter Tzanev and created by Simeon Stoilov. All submitted proposals are publicly accessible as part of the competition process.

Project curator Martina Yordanova said that The Federation of Minor Practices is conceived as "a speculative research laboratory examining forms of collaboration, care, and political imagination in the context of contemporary global crises." The pavilion includes four film works addressing themes such as identity, disinformation, ecology, industrial heritage, and the relationship between humans and nature.

Desislava Dimova explained that her role is to ensure this country’s successful participation in Venice, both in terms of communication and compliance with the Biennale’s requirements. "We are building on three very successful pavilions we have had in recent years, and our role now is to consolidate the presence of Bulgaria's contemporary art in Venice. The responsibility is enormous. Venice is also a very emotional place for us because we have been waiting for decades for such a regular, established presence of Bulgaria on the global art stage. So expectations are very high. I believe we have a project that can live up to them," she said.

Dimova noted that one of the challenges is not only communicating with the international audience but also engaging the Bulgarian public. She added that the official website for the Bulgarian project is now live.

The Venice Art Biennale will take place from May 9 to November 22, 2026, under the theme In Minor Keys. The Bulgarian pavilion will be located in the Titian Hall, which hosted Bulgaria’s projects in the 18th and 19th editions of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023 and 2025, as well as in the 60th Venice Art Biennale in 2024.