Four artists, one federation: Bulgaria at the Venice Biennale

If art is a conversation, Bulgaria’s 2026 pavilion in Venice begins with four distinct voices and the space between them.

The Federation of Minor Practices brings together curator Martina Yordanova, commissioner Dessislava Dimova and four artists: Veneta Androva, Gery Georgieva, Maria Nalbantova and Rayna Teneva. Each has made a film. Together, their works form something larger, without pretending to offer easy answers.

This is not a conventional exhibition. It imagines a research laboratory, gathering ideas from the four films and activating them through a video game. Identity, disinformation, labour and ecology are among its concerns. Visitors do more than watch. They make choices, orient themselves between values and take part in imagining a collective future.

Each personal choice becomes a “minor practice”,

affecting the federation itself. The participation is literal, not just a metaphor. Yordanova describes a pavilion concerned less with prescribing a future than with sustaining the conditions in which possible futures can take shape through attention and care. It asks people to think alongside one another.

Founded in 1895, the Venice Biennale spreads contemporary art across the city through national pavilions and related exhibitions. Bulgaria’s presence has become more consistent since 2019, following a longer history of intermittent participation. The 2026 exhibition takes its curatorial direction from Koyo Kouoh’s

In Minor Keys, an invitation to attend to quieter, more intimate registers of artistic expression.

The Bulgarian pavilion enters that conversation with a voice of its own. It runs until 22 November 2026 at Sala Tiziano, Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli, in Venice’s Dorsoduro district, with free admission. Visit bulgarianpavilionvenice.art for the artists, the concept and practical details. The official listings differ on weekly closing days, so check directly before making a special trip. Even from a distance, the project offers a way into a conversation about what we might build together.

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