You've followed our on-the-ground reporting from the consequential 2026 Venice Biennale, running through November 22. You've read, I hope, our reviews of Koyo Kouoh's posthumous main exhibition In Minor Keys, Alma Allen's unmemorable United States pavillion, and Gabrielle Goliath's Elegy, - displayed at a church after being cancelled by the South African pavilion. You've engaged with our coverage of Dayanita Singh's project at the State Archives of Venice: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince's hit-and-miss collaboration; an interview with Khaled Sabsabi, whose Australian pavilion was censored under pressure from pro-Israel groups and later reinstated; and much more from the international exhibition and its collateral events.
But we never got to tell you what we really thought of the national pavilions, and which ones you should visit or avoid. As the punishing heat waves of this summer taper off, this might be the perfect time to visit the biennale, if you haven't already. Below is the first part of a conversation between Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian and critic Aruna D'Souza on which pavilions they liked, disliked, or remain torn about. They begin with a provocative argument in favor of national pavilions. Did they suddenly become nation-state stans? No, hold on, hear them out.
