The 25th Biennale of Sydney's choice of theme Rememory, drawn from Toni Morrison's exploration of how memory reconstructs suppressed histories, arrives with particular urgency in 2026. Under the artistic direction of internationally acclaimed curator Hoor Al Qasimi, the exhibition spanning March 14 to June 14, positions contemporary art as a vehicle for confronting the erasures and repressions that shape collective memory.
Campbelltown Arts Centre's participation in the Biennale brings significant work to Western Sydney, positioning the venue alongside White Bay Power Station, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Chau Chak Wing Museum, and Penrith Regional Gallery as key sites for this major cultural event. The decision to distribute the Biennale across multiple locations, particularly including Campbelltown and Penrith, reflects a growing recognition that Sydney's cultural geography extends far beyond the CBD.
The artists presenting at Campbelltown address some of the most pressing political and humanitarian issues facing contemporary Australia. Vernon Ah Kee, Hoda Afshar, and Behrouz Boochani's four-channel video installation Code Black/Riot confronts the targeting of Indigenous children within Australia's youth detention system. Through interviews and filmed moments of play, the work makes visible a system that, as the artists argue, deprives children of futures. The collaboration between Ah Kee (one of Australia's most significant contemporary Indigenous artists) and Boochani, whose writing from Manus Island detention centre exposed Australia's offshore processing regime, creates a powerful examination of how the state controls and confines young Indigenous bodies.
The work's timing feels particularly significant given ongoing debates about the age of criminal responsibility and overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in detention. Contemporary art's capacity to create emotional and intellectual engagement with issues that policy discourse often obscures becomes evident in projects like this one.
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige's new immersive multimedia installation examining clandestine migration from northern Lebanon to Australia draws connections between displacement, waiting, and control systems. The work's inspiration from Christmas Island's annual red crab migration creates an evocative metaphor, being natural migration patterns contrasting with the interrupted journeys and prolonged confinement experienced by asylum seekers. The Lebanese filmmakers' focus on stories that connect their homeland to Australia speaks to the diaspora communities that increasingly define contemporary Australian identity.
Feras Shaheen's Blocked Duwar (pictured above), created in collaboration with Jonny Scholes, employs video game technology to explore the maintenance of Palestinian identity within diaspora. By asking viewers to "confront their own role in local and global systems of power," the work creates the kind of active engagement that distinguishes participatory art from passive observation. The piece's performance dates (March 26-28) suggest a work requiring audience interaction rather than traditional gallery viewing.
The artist residencies for Norberto Roldan and Vicente Telles demonstrate the Biennale's commitment to process alongside finished works. Creating art on-site while engaging with local communities through workshops acknowledges that meaningful cultural exchange requires time and genuine interaction rather than simply installing pre-existing work.
Al Qasimi's curatorial vision, that of understanding memory as "something living, where history informs the present and repeats itself in different forms," provides a coherent framework for the exhibition's ambitious scope. The 83 artists and collectives from 37 countries create conversations that move between the local and global, the personal and political, the historical and contemporary.
The Biennale's commitment to free admission removes a significant barrier to engagement, particularly important for venues like the Campbelltown Arts Centre, ensuring cost never prevents cultural participation. This accessibility aligns with the exhibition's focus on marginalised narratives and untold stories, making the work available to the communities whose experiences it often reflects.
The dedicated programming for children and young audiences acknowledges that memory's transmission requires intergenerational engagement. How we tell stories to the next generation shapes what histories survive and which continue to be erased.
For Campbelltown, hosting these international and national artists represents both cultural validation and economic opportunity. Mayor Darcy Lound's observation that the Biennale showcases Campbelltown "on an international stage" reflects the ongoing tension in Western Sydney between seeking recognition from established cultural institutions and building independent cultural infrastructure.
The works presented at Campbelltown Arts Centre demand engagement with difficult histories, covering Indigenous detention, refugee experience, diaspora identity, and colonial legacies. This programming represents the kind of politically engaged contemporary art that sparks necessary conversations while challenging comfortable assumptions about memory, justice, and belonging.
The 25th Biennale of Sydney: Rememory runs March 14 to June 14, 2026 at Campbelltown Arts Centre and four other venues. Admission is free.
(Top Image: Grace Steindl)
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