VENICE.- The Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication announced the participation of the Kingdom of Morocco in the 2026 Biennale Arte, with a national pavilion at the Arsenale for the first time. On the occasion of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Morocco Pavilion will present Asǝṭṭa, a project by artist Amina Agueznay and curator Meriem Berrada.

For its national pavilion at the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Kingdom of Morocco presents Asǝṭṭa, a monumental installation by Amina Agueznay. Designed specifically for the Arsenale’s Artiglierie and curated by Meriem Berrada, Asǝṭṭa explores the transmission of traditional craftsmanship and shared memory. The work centres on the symbolism of thresholds, echoing the theme of this edition, In Minor Keys, chosen by Koyo Kouoh.

A Pavilion shaped by the echoes of shared memory

Located at the heart of the Arsenale, Asǝṭṭa – an Amazigh word for ritual weaving – reflects the connection to the land, gestures, and voices that shape and sustain Morocco’s artisanal traditions.

The Morocco Pavilion resonates with the theme of this G1st edition, In Minor Keys, emphasising attention to subtle narratives, quiet practices, and memories passed from hand to hand.

« Heritage is a living substance, with innovation as its life force. » – Amina Agueznay

Amina Agueznay: Weaver of Gestures and Stories

For more than twenty years, Amina Agueznay has developed an approach deeply rooted in Moroccan vernacular knowledge and practices. With a background in architecture, she designs her works as spaces to inhabit, carefully integrating scale, rhythm, and materials to their location.

Through workshops, residencies, and on-site projects across the Kingdom, the artist works hand in hand with local communities – weavers, embroiderers, basket-makers, jewellers, apprentices, master artisans, and workshop leaders. Large-scale installations such as Skin, Curriculum Vitae, Aouinates, and Fieldworks demonstrate her consistent attention to ancestral gestures, lineage, and the invisible threads of knowledge passed down through generations.

Her works are characterised by a discreet monumentality that never betrays the very essence of the material: a practice in which every twist, braid, coil, and stitch carries a story as well as silences, in a continuous exploration of how art can connect territory, body, memory, and landscape.

Asǝṭṭa: A Second Skin for the Artiglierie

Specifically designed for the Morocco Pavilion, Asǝṭṭa reveals layers of time, narrative fragments, and personal memories. The installation investigates the concept of the threshold, or âatba – the passage between inside and outside, private and public, sacred and profane, at the heart of Moroccan vernacular architecture. Infused with ritual, this threshold transforms into an inhabited, transitional space.

« As tta pays tribute to these often invisible talents: keepers of time-honoured skills. They are invited here not as peripheral figures, but as key resources, witnesses to a space of living transmission where artisanal creation is never objectified but activated as language, as thought in action. A living archaeology of gestures, passed down, transformed, and exalted, continuing to shape new forms from ancestral heritage; a mark of recognition for those who, in minor key, contribute to the beauty of the world. » - Meriem Berrada

Intertwined: A Journey of Creative Companionship

Since their first collaboration on Noise—a library of materials originally created with a group of artisans onsite in Asilah in 2018—Amina Agueznay and Meriem Berrada have shared a bond rooted in a passion for manual craft and vernacular expressions of heritage. “Amina appreciates raw materials; they are precious to her,” explains Meriem, who senses an ensemble of presences behind each work: hands, stories, and enduring ties embedded in Morocco’s regions.

The exhibition will be on view from 9 May to 22 November 202G at the Arsenale, Venice.