Veronica Pereira Maia, Etson Caminha, and Juventino Madeira have been selected to represent Timor-Leste at the 2026 Venice Biennale, which will mark the Southeast Asian country’s second participation in the prestigious event. 

Veronica Pereira Maia (b. 1930) is a leading figure in Timor-Leste’s conceptual art scene whose practice is rooted in traditional tais weaving. After fleeing from the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975 and seeking refuge in Lisbon, she settled down in Darwin, where she continues to work. The nonagenarian artist has held several major exhibitions in Australia, including a 1996 group show featuring Maria Madeira, who represented Timor-Leste at the 2024 Venice Biennale. 

Etson Caminha (b. 1984) is an experimental sound and performance artist whose oeuvre fuses traditional music and dance with contemporary technologies to probe Timor-Leste’s fraught past and current social conditions. He established the music initiative NOISE Timor and also co-founded the annual LANTAVA arts and cultural festival in Lospalos. 

Juventino Madeira (b. 1994) is a mostly self-taught multidisciplinary artist who creates immersive sensorial works across photography, film, poetry, dance, and theater. Known for using projection mapping to produce cinematic, site-specific installations in public spaces throughout Timor-Leste, he also frequently collaborates with international artists to enrich his practice.

In a press release, Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani, curator of the forthcoming Timor-Leste Pavilion, remarked that the three artists share “a commitment to storytelling that responds to relevant sociopolitical issues, from the traumatic history of Timor-Leste to the formation of a contemporary cultural identity driven by its younger generations.” 

Together, the trio will channel their multigenerational artistic vocabularies into an exhibition that explores Timor-Leste’s ancient language systems, offering a thoughtful engagement with the nation’s culture and history.The 61st Venice Biennale will take place from May 9 to November 22, 2026.

Yuqian Fan is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.