In this interview, artist Dayanita Singh discusses ARCHIVIO (Venice, Frari Church, 2026), an exhibition in the Winter Refectory that merges Italy’s State Archives with her 25-year photographic archive.
Housed within the historic Winter Refectory of Venice’s Frari Church, Indian photographic artist Dayanita Singh’s site-specific exhibition ARCHIVIO (April 17 – July 31, 2026) disrupts traditional state preservation by intertwining Italy’s official bureaucratic history with her own 25-year private photographic archive through a dynamic, modular installation. The relationship between Singh and the city of Venice is defined by her presence at the Venice Biennale – including her participation in the 2013 edition, where she represented Germany in the French Pavilion – and her profound engagement with the city’s institutional memory. Due to the artist’s unique professional and personal approach, the Venetian State Archives have opened their historic spaces to a contemporary public art installation for the first time. This presentation showcases her ‘museum-as-book’ concept, which intertwines her photographic work with historical Venetian documents while collaborating with local academic institutions like IUAV University and Università Ca’ Foscari. Curated by the Roman artist and designer Andrea Anastasio, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Delhi, the exhibition weaves together a ten-year documentation of state institutions across Italy with intimate everyday observations, portraits and architectural studies. A specific focus of 60 photographs is dedicated directly to the lagoon city, capturing the visual memory of the Venetian State Archives, the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, the traditional glass furnaces of Murano and private domestic interiors.
As an acclaimed international artist, you have chosen to spotlight a highly fragile dimension of our city: the State Archives, which preserve the historic documents of the Venetian Republic, including its oldest manuscript dating back to approximately 847 AD.
The exhibition is hosted in the Winter Refectory, a recently restored Renaissance section of the building. Having this space opened to the public is a true miracle!
In this exhibition you are sharing photographs taken in Italy – from Venice and Turin to Naples and Palermo – for twenty-five years.
Because twenty-five years is a very abstract concept, I’ve chosen to combine portraits I took many years ago with entirely new pictures. You might think twenty-five years is an abstract idea, but it isn’t when you see young people growing. In my exhibition I am questioning who has truly been a part of my project from the very beginning. In the center of the Refectory, you can see my Patron’s Pillar, dedicated to the people who have given me a bed and food whenever I’ve been in Italy. They are my true patrons! Take Claudia, for example — she is an archivist here in Venice, and she appears in many of the pillars. Remarkably, all the people you see in these photographs were present at the opening. This person here, for instance, is the one who introduced me to Barbara and Gigi, whose apartment I stay in whenever I’m in Venice. So they are my chief patrons. It is incredibly beautiful – in all seriousness.
Your custom-crafted pillars are engineered as dynamic, three-dimensional architectural structures that completely redefine the physical presentation of photography.
This geometric arrangement allows a single totem to showcase up to twenty photographs simultaneously, transforming flat images into a sculptural, spatial experience that viewers must physically walk around to fully comprehend. You look at this, you see the Scarpa at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, and then you look at Palermo, and then you look at Florence.
You are working with the curator Andrea Anastasio, an Italian who knows India and Indian culture very well. It is fascinating that this project presents an Indian view of Italy, yet it is curated by an Italian.
When looking at these images, the meaning becomes perfectly clear. This is about culture, heritage, and preserving cultural heritage through a different style, culture, and technique. At the opening, so many people asked, “How can you tie your documents in fabric?” And I replied, “Because it creates a handle and turns it into a bag, making it easier to carry.”
By taking these photographs of the archives and the people involved, are you also creating a sort of archive yourself?
I think that’s why the archivists have always welcomed me into the archives – because they can immediately sense that I’m somehow an archivist as well, and that I truly respect what they do. For me, the most moving thing at the opening – of course, having all my friends here was great, but then to have the archivists there, you know? It’s like black and white suddenly becoming color. All of them from the Venice Pillars were here. And they have been very proud of it, because nobody celebrates the archivist. You might even celebrate the archive. Not the person.
The State Archives in Italy are currently struggling with a severe staff shortage. How has this lack of employees impacted your work there, and did you feel these constraints while working on your project?
The core responsibility of these individuals is handling priceless, ancient documents that are completely unique and must be preserved for future generations. Yet, they are operating with limited funds, minimal budgets, fewer staff members, and highly constrained resources.
This is precisely why their work is so vital: you are capturing and preserving the essence of this place. That is where the deep connection lies – between their struggle to save history and your artistic preservation of it.
LINK
- Becoming Academy: Marina Abramović in Venice - September 18, 2026
- The Generative Dispositif of Institutional Memory. An Interview with Dayanita Singh - June 19, 2026
- Mark Rothko in Florence - March 27, 2026
