A taste of what’s to come as Wales returns to Venice art festival

Wales will feature at one of the most prestigious art festivals in the world for the first time since 2019 this summer, with the ‘Sownd’ exhibition by Manon Awst and Dylan Huw opening this Saturday 9 May and running until 22 November 2026.

Three site-specific events in Wales will run in parallel with the presence as a collateral event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

‘Sownd’, combines organic and geological matter from north Wales and the Venetian lagoon with words, sounds and sculptures responding to the venue’s unique architecture.

The title Sownd – meaning both “stuck” and “structurally sound” – reflects the artists’ collaborative research on the unstable grounds of Welsh peatlands and the fragile ecologies of the Venetian lagoon.

These sites underpin a tactile exploration of the precariously layered histories held within minoritised language cultures.

The exhibition’s main sculptural device is a wooden boardwalk which guides visitors through the installation’s three rooms, designed with the Caernarfon-based architecture studio, PegwA.

It echoes the paths found on wet, boggy grounds, and Venice’s passerelle, temporary walkways installed when the city faces high water. The boardwalk culminates in a spatial sound installation, made with collaboration from Freya Dooley and Catrin Menai, circling a fourteenth-century poem by Dafydd ap Gwilym.

Other collaborators on the installation include the bio-design studio Tŷ Syml and We are here Venice, a research collective and activist platform dedicated to the conservation of Venice as a living city.

Awst and Huw said: “Welsh peatlands, sticky and unstable environments, both conceal and reveal vast scales of material history. These sites, layered with organic matter and cultural memory, became a terrain from which we navigated sedimented histories of language, culture, and ecology.

“Our hope is that ‘Sownd’ invites connections between disciplines and across borders, informed by Wales’ celebrated history of site-specific collective practice and its oral poetic tradition.”

Both Manon Awst and Dylan Huw have worked extensively in Wales and internationally, but this will be their most ambitious exhibition to date. Steffan Jones Hughes of Oriel Davies in Newtown who is curating the project with Catherine Spring of Oriel Myrddin in Carmarthen as co-creative director, said:

“The project brings Wales and Venice together in a fresh and compelling way, drawing on the language, culture and landscapes that define Cymru. I’m delighted to be supporting Manon and Dylan as we launch the exhibition in Venice and in locations across Wales, ensuring it is accessible to both international art audiences and local communities.

“Manon Awst is one of Wales’s most exciting contemporary artists, and together with Dylan Huw and their collaborators, they have created an exhibition that is generous in its engagement with artists, scientists, ecologists and audiences alike. We are also grateful for the support of Art Fund and the Colwinston Charitable Trust, whose backing is helping us bring the project to life here in Wales alongside its presentation in Venice.”

Alongside the Venice presentation, Art Fund and the Colwinston Charitable Trust are supporting Sownd [ar safle / on site], a series of site-specific events in 2026 across three Welsh peatland sites – Cors Bodeilio, Anglesey (June), Cors Caron, Ceredigion (July), and Cors Crymlyn, Swansea (September).

A mobile structure echoing the architecture of the Venice exhibition will be activated by Awst and Huw at each event, alongside newly-commissioned live work by artists including Eddie Ladd, Anushiye Yarnell, Becca Voelcker and Naomi Pearce. Informed by Wales’ celebrated history of site-specific collective practice and its oral poetic tradition, the peatland sites will become terrains for artists and audiences to navigate layered histories of language and ecology.

See Sownd [ar safle] / Sownd [on site] at:

6.6.26: Cors Bodeilio, Môn – free tickets available online at www.orieldavies.org from 15.5.26
11.7.26: Cors Caron, Ceredigion – watch out for ticket announcement
12.9.26: Cors Crymlyn, Abertawe/Swansea – watch out for ticket announcement

The Arts Council of Wales has commissioned exhibitions at the International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, nine times since 2003 – the last time being Sean Edwards’s exhibition Undo Things Done in 2019. In 2025 there was a renewed commitment by Arts Council of Wales to showcase Welsh art at the world-renowned Venice Biennale in 2026, and future editions in 2028 and 2030.

Louise Wright, Head of Visual and Applied arts at Arts at Arts Council of Wales said: “Manon and Dylan have created work of immense depth and sensitivity, and we look forward to sharing this with the thousands of art world professionals and visitors in Venice, as well as sharing the project through these unique site-specific encounters in Wales.”