A special program supporting Khaled Sabsabi’s presentation at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, where he presents two interconnected works: conference of one’s self at the Australia Pavilion, and a new work within the exhibition ‘In Minor Keys’, conceived by the late curator Koyo Kouoh.
The Gathering brings together an introduction by curator Michael Dagostino, an in-conversation with the artist featuring curator and writer Kathryn Weir, and a presentation by art historian Claire Dillon connecting themes of spirituality and Islamic visual culture.
The program is presented by Commissioner Creative Australia in collaboration with Education Partner UNSW Sydney.
PROGRAM
10.00am Welcome
Michelle Newton, Creative Australia
10.10am Introduction
Michael Dagostino, curator of the Australia Pavilion
Michael Dagostino introduces conference of one’s self and Sabsabi’s new work for ‘In Minor Keys’, providing context for their development as interconnected companion projects.
10.25am Forms of Infinity, Forms of Affinity
Claire Dillon, Columbia University
Drawing on the layered histories of Venice as a city shaped by migration, exchange, and cultural encounter, art historian Claire Dillon discusses Khaled Sabsabi’s work alongside lineages of Islamic visual culture across the Mediterranean region.
10.50am In-Conversation
Khaled Sabsabi with Kathryn Weir, Université de Paris 8
Khaled Sabsabi joins curator and writer Kathryn Weir to explore how tasawwuf (Sufi) thought informs Sabsabi’s practice and the visual languages he deploys to express ideas of collective futurity shaped by migrant experiences, journeys, and encounters.
Followed by Q&A
11.30am
Event concludes
BIOGRAPHIES
Khaled Sabsabi is an acclaimed, award-winning Australian multidisciplinary artist. For over 35 years, Sabsabi has worked across media and borders, collaborating with communities locally and internationally. Sabsabi’s work centres on social justice and lived experience, informed by his 1976 migration from Lebanon to Australia to escape the civil war. Sabsabi has received more than 15 international awards and has produced more than 65 major mixed-media and installation-based works to date, exhibiting in over 90 solo and group exhibitions in Australia and internationally. Sabsabi is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
Michael Dagostino is the Director of the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney. As a relatively new museum, it unites the university’s diverse collections into a multidisciplinary institution dedicated to education and community engagement. Dagostino was the founding Director of Parramatta Artists Studios in 2006, establishing a key platform for emerging artists and from 2011-23, the Director of Campbelltown Arts Centre, where he delivered an artist-driven program supporting local, national, and international collaborations.
Claire Dillon is an art historian and public scholar researching the intersections of visual cultures, identities, and faiths in the medieval Mediterranean and their modern afterlives. In addition to her writing on contemporary art, she studies histories of medieval silk production and its legacies in modern design, the architecture of Italian Empire, and the ways in which the medieval past is exploited by modern extremist movements. She is a PhD candidate at Columbia University, specialising in the arts of the lands of Islam. Her work has been supported by the American Academy in Rome, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mellon Foundation, and the International Interfaith Research Lab, among other institutions.
Kathryn Weir (Université de Paris 8) lectures on artistic research and the social sciences at Sciences Po, Saint-Germain-en-Laye and was previously Co-Artistic Director, Lagos Biennial (2021–24), Artistic Director, Madre museum (2020-23), and Director of multidisciplinary programmes, Centre Pompidou (2014–20), where she created Cosmopolis in 2015, a platform for research-based, socially engaged and collaborative practices. She is currently working on Jimmie Durham: humanity is not a completed project (Skira, 2026) and Technologies of gender (co-curated with Paula Nascimento, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, 2027). Recent exhibition projects include Green Snake: women-centred ecologies (Tai Kwun Contemporary, 2023-2024), Rethinking Nature (Madre, 2021–22) and Collective Body (Dhaka Art Summit 2020).
ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP
UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA) has been appointed as the exclusive Education Partner for Australia’s participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The appointment marks a significant new partnership between UNSW Sydney and Creative Australia, the Australian Government’s peak arts funding body and the commissioning organisation for Australia’s representation at the Venice Biennale 2026. As Education Partner, UNSW ADA, led by UNSW Galleries, is delivering a comprehensive suite of public programs in Sydney and Venice, developing education resources and the Pavilion’s official catalogue, and creating professional learning opportunities for UNSW students and staff.