VENICE.- After over four hundred years of Portuguese colonization and a subsequent 24-year Indonesian occupation beginning in 1975, Timor-Leste gained independence in May 2002, becoming Southeast Asia’s youngest and smallest nation.

For its second pavilion at the Venice Biennale—and its first in the Arsenale—Timor-Leste presents Across Words, an exploration of language and oral memory as a generative force within the nation's layered systems of communication.

Curator Loredana Pazzini Paracciani said: "Rather than seeking linguistic cohesion, the people of Timor-Leste proudly locate their identity in linguistic multiplicity across ancestral dialects and official languages. Within this diversity, Timor-Leste’s unity emerges—a cohesion found across words."

For centuries, the nation’s heritage was carried by more than thirty distinct local languages. It is only within the last thirty years—approximately from the 1999 referendum for independence to the present—that Tetum Prasa has transformed from an oral trade language into a formalized register for government, education, and literature. This rapid evolution has created a unique linguistic environment in which ancestral idioms and contact languages like Portuguese, English, and Indonesian interact. This polyphony of sounds and languages serves as the project’s fil rouge.

Representing diverse generations and distinct artistic practices, artists Verónica Pereira Maia (b.1933), Etson Caminha (b. 1984) and Juventino Madeira (b. 1994) come together for the first time to explore how communication—and the concept of language in contemporary Timor-Leste—extends beyond written or spoken forms to encompass sound, gesture, and material practices that help define the identity of this young nation.

At the heart of the exhibition is nonagenarian Verónica Pereira Maia’s seminal 1994 textile work, Tais Don—a historical heirloom displayed in Europe for the first time. Tais Don was created to memorialize the names of the young people who lost their lives in the 12 November 1991 massacre—a brutal turning point in Timor-Leste’s history—using a phonetic approximation of the alphabet. Mediating between oral knowledge, written language, and the processes of nation-making, Pereira Maia can arguably be considered a forerunner of Timorese conceptual art. Her works have been exhibited widely in museum settings, as well as in protests and demonstrations across Australia in support of Timor-Leste's struggle for independence.

Major new sound and video installations—CUALE (Flow) by Etson Caminha and Fraze ne’ebé seidauk hotu (An Unfinished Sentence) by Juventino Madeira—function as sensory gateways into Timor-Leste, tracing the formation of the country’s identity and its evolution as driven by a younger generation striving toward modernity.

“In bringing these multi-generational artists together, the Pavilion seeks to decolonize the viewer’s gaze, opening it to a process of mutual growth and an understanding of Timor-Leste not as a static entity, but as a living, evolving, unfinished sentence,” Pazzini Paracciani said.

The exhibition will be accompanied by ACROSS WORDS: An Anthology, a comprehensive anthology of Timor-Leste’s contemporary art, offering a vital perspective on the country’s culture, which remains little known to international audiences. The anthology unfolds through newly commissioned articles by acclaimed scholars, researchers, curators, and artists from Southeast Asia and beyond, who either respond directly to the artworks presented in the Pavilion or address Timor-Leste’s culture from a broader historical and social perspectives.

Located between Australia and Indonesia, Timor-Leste is Southeast Asia’s youngest nation and a recent member of ASEAN.

Verónica Pereira Maia b. 1933, Fohorem, Covalima, Timor-Leste: Verónica Pereira Maia is best known for her exceptional contribution to the traditional Timorese art of tais weaving. Forced to flee Timor-Leste in 1975 during the Indonesian military occupation, she moved to Portugal, before settling in Darwin, Australia, where she currently resides. Her works have been exhibited widely, including in the seminal group exhibition Tuba Rai Metin (Firmly Gripping the Earth, 1996) at the Darwin Fringe Festival (Darwin), as an offsite event in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (Sydney), and at the Australian National University (1997).

Etson Caminha b. 1984, Lospalos, Lautem, Timor-Leste: Creating ephemeral, often live-rendered performances, Caminha blends traditional musical forms and dance with modern technologies to craft immersive listening experiences that reflect transformation and resilience in Timor-Leste’s post-conflict society. For the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2024), Caminha presented mixed-media installations, including My Kitchen Sounds, which explored traditional and adopted understandings of national and personal identity through sound. His sound work was featured in BIENALSUR Timor-Leste (2025).

Juventino Madeira b. 1994, Iliomar, Lautem, Timor-Leste: Primarily self-taught, Madeira has developed an experimental approach to creating evocative, site-specific video installations that organically respond to their surroundings. His work spans multiple disciplines—including experimental photography, film, poetry, dance, and theatre—to construct layered narratives and sensorial experiences. His short narrative video Rama Husi We-Ua (2022) was an official selection of the Timor-Leste Tourism Short Film Festival (2023) and the Darwin Film Festival (2024). Madeira participated in BIENALSUR Timor-Leste (2025).

Organizer: Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture, Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste / Commissioner: Jorge Soares Cristovão, Secretary of State for Arts and Culture / Curator: Loredana Pazzini Paracciani / Artists: Verónica Pereira Maia, Etson Caminha, Juventino Madeira / Advisors: Simon Fenby, Dr. Maria Madeira, Dr. Kim McGrath, Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda.