March 28 – October 11 2026
Ocean Space Venice
Commissioned by TBA21 Academy
Tide of Returns is a major new exhibition by the Repatriates Collective that explores how art and water shape contemporary processes of cultural restitution and repatriation. Presented throughout both wings of Ocean Space in the former Church of San Lorenzo, the exhibition brings together newly commissioned installations created in collaboration with Indigenous artists, filmmakers, and communities from Australia’s Pacific North, South and West Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
In the west wing, visitors enter an expansive landscape of sand, shells, textile figures, video, and sound an immersive environment that transforms the space into a ceremonial place of return. Anchored by sand from Noeleen Lalara’s land and populated by ancestral dolls crafted by Anindilyakwa artists and Laimi Kakololo, the installation becomes a living topography of clans, songlines, and kinship. Film sequences by Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Kasimir Burgess, Syd Britten Andrews, and Joel Haikali animate these figures, while a sound composition by Rebekah Wilson carries stories, songs, and intergenerational wisdom across imagined waters. The work proposes repatriation not only as a legal or political act, but as a poetic, intimate practice of cultural continuance.
In the east wing, a textile and video installation by Verena Melgarejo Weinandt meditates on care, belonging, and collective healing. Woven, blue toned fabrics interlaced with black braids recalling both hair and flowing currents form a tactile landscape shaped by gestures of washing, weaving, and tending. A three channel video shows a riverine performance of preparing and braiding cloth, evoking the continuity between bodies of water and the bodies that depend on them. Here, water becomes an archive of memory, carrying stories of resilience across generations and geographies.
Running concurrently in the Research Room, the exhibition Nature Speaks. Listening for Rights of Nature in Venice and Europe, curated by Pietro Consolandi and Amalia Rossi, extends the thematic focus toward ecological justice. The project reflects TBA21 Academys commitment to advancing Rights of Nature frameworks and cultivating new forms of environmental stewardship through artistic and research based practices.
Tide of Returns is part of the 2025/2026 edition of OCEAN UNI, TBA21 Academys pedagogical platform. This years program, Spaces of Collaboration, explores the moving image as a tool for repatriation and cultural restitution, developed with Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll and Verena Melgarejo Weinandt alongside an international group of artists, thinkers, and activists.
Through immersive installations, collaborative research, and community led artistic practice, Tide of Returns reflects the Repatriates Collectives ongoing work to examine the emotional, political, and relational dimensions of returning cultural belongings. The exhibition invites visitors to imagine forms of homecoming shaped by water, story, and shared responsibility across continents.