L: Morven Gregor, Photo by Dimitri D’Ippolito. R: Mara Gladstone. Photo by Kieran Punay.
Mara Gladstone is the curator of the Philippine Pavilion at the 61st Venice Art Biennale 2026 Sea of Love / Dagat ng Pag-ibig a project by artist Jon Cuyson, and Morven Gregor is the Curator of Contemporary and Learning at Mount Stuart Trust, who this year curated Scotland + Venice's presentation Shame Parade by Bugarin + Castle. Read more
Bugarin + Castle, Installation view of the exhibition Shame Parade curated by Mount Stuart Trust for Scotland + Venice at La Biennale di Venezia in 2026. Image by Dimitri D’Ippolito. Courtesy of the artists and Scotland + Venice.
A dark corridor on arrival becomes throat walls as gulping noises play along its narrow green-lit passage leading to Bugarin + Castle’s Venice presentation. ‘Autophony’ is the relevant term for hearing my own biological functioning: creaking, pulsing organs and bones from within. Read more
In the second week here, we move a Vaporetto ride away from Venice and start travelling to work every day across the water. After the first few rides, I stumble off the boat physically, to spend my days on land, internally swaying, asking if anyone else is and realising I’ve left brain and senses on the boat and they’re off doing the rounds of the island. Read more
Detail of Bugarin + Castle, Set Upon, part of Shame Parade curated by Mount Stuart Trust for Scotland + Venice 2026. Image by Ryan Scott.
For me, Bugarin + Castle are quite easily the standout artists at this year’s Venice Biennale. Both young and right at the beginning of their collaborative artistic career, Davide Bugarin and Angel Cohn Castle first crossed paths in Edinburgh, where they were both performing in the city’s queer cabaret scene. Read more
Sculpture Placement Group (SPG) was appointed by the Scotland + Venice partnership in July 2022 to undertake a year-long research fellowship, looking into how the partnership could preside over sustainable and ethical presentations at the Art and Architecture Venice Biennales. Read more
Scotland + Venice has been developed over twenty years as an official Venice Biennale collateral event. Up until its pause in 2024, Scotland+ Venice had established a reputation as one of the Biennial’s most exciting collateral events. Read more
Birch trees of Ravenscraig – work on display in the Ravenscraig section of A Fragile Correspondence. Photo by Daniele Sambo.
After an Open Call asking artists and writers for a creative promotional response to the themes of A Fragile Correspondence, Harvey Dimond was commissioned to write the below creative response. This three-part text considers how colonialism has shaped the natural ecologies of Scotland, South Africa and Barbados, and considers their historic and contemporary resonances from a diasporic perspective. Read more
A close-up of the work by Raghnaid Sandilands in the Loch Ness section of A Fragile Correspondence. Photo by Alyesha Choudhury.
After an Open Call asking artists and writers for a creative promotional response to the themes of A Fragile Correspondence, Harper Walton was commissioned to write the below poem, which explores the geographically distinct areas of Highland, Island and Lowland as queer spaces through a transgender and non-binary lens. Read more
Photo credit: Robb Mcrae.
The Scotland + Venice | Found in Translation: Architecture, Land, Landscape, Language event on 14 October brought together presentations from the Austrian Pavilion, Orizzontale (from Rome, exhibiting within the Arsenale), Dualchas, A Fragile Correspondence, the Lithuanian Pavilion and Scottish author Cal Flyn. Read more
A Fragile Correspondence, work on display in the Orkney Section. Photo: Daniele Sambo
The frequency of an island sounds different from that of the mainland; and in conversation with the rhythms of the sky and sea, Orcadians live in conjunction with the water that they are surrounded by and in response to its temperament - floods, rain, and storms. Read more
