Paerangi: Venice brings together four Māori artists — John Turi-Tiakitai, Kereama Taepa, Neke Moa, and Suzanne Tamaki — for a powerful series of site-responsive activations during the 61st Venice Biennale Vernissage and public opening weekend in 2026.
Developed as a partnership between Te Tuhi and CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo, on Venice's Giudecca Island, this unique project sees the rōpū work collectively and individually across a variety of mediums.
Emerging from the kaupapa of Paerangi: Waipawa (2024), presented by Te Tuhi in the small rural Central Hawke's Bay settlement of Waipawa, this international presentation continues a journey of collaboration, cultural exchange, and community engagement. Curator Karl Chitham says Paerangi refers to the seat of Ranginui or the horizon, a place of unlimited potential and change. For the artists, all visiting Venice and the Biennale for the first time, Paerangi: Venice offers a horizon of new possibilities, including the chance to exhibit work within the context of the most extensive and high profile art exhibition in the world.
The artists of Paerangi: Venice will be presenting two public outdoor activations during the Vernissage week of the Venice Biennale. The first will be at CREA (211B, Giudecca Island, Venice) on Tuesday 5 May at 10am. This activation will include costume, pūrākau and performance and will be centred around a 2.5m contemporary pou whenua created especially for the site. A second activation will take place during CREA's open day on Friday 8 May at 5.30pm.
During their time in Venice the rōpū will also be working on solo projects inspired by the location and communities they encounter. Following the Vernissage the pou whenua will remain on display at CREA for the remainder of the Venice Biennale, which closes on 22 November 2026.
→ Read more about the artists and the curator.
About CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo
CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo is a project that started with the first steps of One Contemporary Art Association on the Giudecca Island in 2016.
CREA works within the Consorzio di Cantieristica Minore Veneziana, a 3,000 m2 site of an old shipyard that overlooks the Lagoon to the south. The complex includes workshops, shipyards, upholsterers, interior carpenters, electricians and a blacksmiths’s shop, with 12 resident artisans.
Six exhibition spaces have been created alongside, never overlapping, the artisan shops, filling gaps in the text in places, over time, which have remained in disuse. Consorzio Cantieristica Minore also hosts the classes of new technologies of the arts of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, a further and very important addition to a triangulation between Crafts, Visual Arts and Didactics that is at the center of CREAs mission.
In addition to its own exhibitions, CREA provides logistics for art exhibitions in Venice. CREA can provide every single step of logistics required to stage an exhibition in Venice, including venue sourcing, transportation, import, customs clearance, exhibition permits, insurance, public safety certifications, installation and event management.
→ Read more about CREA.