Lebanon’s Venice pavilion set

Lebanon will send Nabil Nahas to the 2026 Venice Biennale with “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” a pavilion exhibition curated by Nada Ghandour. (e-flux.com) The show will open in the Arsenale for the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, which runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7, and 8. (labiennale.org) According to e-flux, Nahas’s project stretches across 45 linear meters and uses 26 acrylic-on-canvas panels in a single installation. The work is billed as an immersive piece about the relationship between humanity, nature, and the cosmos. (e-flux.com) National pavilions are the Venice Biennale’s country presentations, and Lebanon’s announcement adds another confirmed entry to the 2026 roster now taking shape for the May opening. The main exhibition will proceed under the title “In Minor Keys,” a project La Biennale said it will carry out with the support of late curator Koyo Kouoh’s family. (labiennale.org) Lebanon’s pavilion is part of the Biennale’s Arsenale circuit rather than a permanent national building in the Giardini. The Lebanese Pavilion’s website says the country’s 2026 presentation will be installed there under the Lebanese Visual Art Association. (lebanesepavilionvenice.com) Nahas, born in Beirut in 1949, studied in the United States and has long worked between New York and Beirut. His biography says he earned a Master of Fine Arts at Yale University in 1973 and has built a practice around dense, textured paintings that often draw on plant life and geometric pattern. (nabilnahas.com) The Lebanese Pavilion says Ghandour is a heritage curator with a Doctor of Philosophy in art history and training from the Institut National du Patrimoine in Paris. She also served in Lebanon’s 2024 Venice Biennale presentation, when Mounira Al Solh represented the country. (lebanesepavilionvenice.com, artafricamagazine.org) A February presentation at the Lebanese National Library put the pavilion project before local officials, including Culture Minister Ghassan Salamé, months ahead of the Venice opening. That early rollout suggests Lebanon is locking in its biennial plans well before the wider exhibition opens to the public in May 2026. (executive-bulletin.com) By May, visitors in Venice will encounter Lebanon’s pavilion as a long, single environment rather than a small group show. For now, the country has made its central choice clear: one artist, one curator, and one large-format installation in the Arsenale. (e-flux.com, lebanesepavilionvenice.com)