A Poetic Exploration of Repatriation, Care, and Cultural Healing
Venice, March 27, 2026 — TBA21–Academy has launched Tide of Returns, a major new exhibition at Ocean Space in the historic Church of San Lorenzo. Running from March 28 to October 11, 2026, the exhibition coincides with the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
Conceived by the Repatriates Collective — an international group of artists from Australia’s Pacific, North and South Africa, Europe, and Latin America — Tide of Returns offers a collective artistic response to cultural repatriation. Rather than focusing solely on political claims, the exhibition approaches restitution as a ceremonial act of repair, care, and reclamation.
Curated by Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, the show features two ambitious site-specific installations created especially for the former church:
- In the West Wing, the Repatriates Collective presents From My Mother’s Country, an immersive installation combining sand dunes, thousands of handmade ritual dolls (made from shell, textile, and Namibian fabrics), video, and sound. The work draws on Indigenous knowledge from both Australia and Namibia, evoking ancestral connections and the belief that sound can carry wisdom across water.
- In the East Wing, Verena Melgarejo Weinandt presents Weaving Connections, a textile and three-channel video installation. Blue-toned fabrics threaded with black braids fill the space, while the video documents a ritual performance of braiding and washing textiles in a river — a meditative act symbolizing care, purification, and the interconnectedness of bodies of water.
Markus Reymann, Co-Director of TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, emphasized the symbolic power of the venue: “The Church of San Lorenzo is not a white cube. It is a building shaped by centuries of trade, faith, empire, and the restless circulation of people and goods over the Mediterranean. The encounter between the Collective’s practice and this space produces something that exceeds documentation.”
Curator Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll described the exhibition as “utopian in the best sense,” adding: “It is an army of women creating a pattern of relations in which the more-than-human recognize themselves and each other anew.”
Running concurrently in the Research Room is Nature Speaks. Listening for Rights of Nature in Venice and Europe, a policy lab co-curated by Pietro Consolandi and Amalia Rossi. Co-produced with the NICHE Centre for Environmental Humanities at Ca’ Foscari University, the project explores the possibility of granting legal rights to the Venetian Lagoon, in collaboration with local activist networks.
Tide of Returns exemplifies TBA21–Academy’s long-standing mission since 2002 to support artist-driven research that addresses ecological, social, and cultural transformation through long-term, transdisciplinary collaboration.
The exhibition is open to the public from March 28 until October 11, 2026, at Ocean Space, Venice.
