Pocket Universe: Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir Imagines a New Beginning
Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir, Hero Form, 2026 | Courtesy © Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir | Photo: Sandijs Ruluks
Rather than presenting a fixed exhibition, Pocket Universe invites visitors into an environment that continues to evolve throughout the Biennale. Representing Iceland at the 61st International Art Exhibition, artist, poet, composer and filmmaker Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir conceives the pavilion as a living organism, activated over time by performances, sound interventions and unexpected encounters. Presented in the new Icelandic Pavilion at the Docks Cantieri Cucchini, a former shipyard between the Giardini and the Arsenale, the exhibition brings together sculpture, moving image, sound and installation without following a conventional narrative. Instead, visitors encounter a constellation of fragments that encourages intuitive exploration rather than linear interpretation. At the centre of the exhibition is Creature Zero, the protagonist of a moving-image work searching for the mythical "original rock" from which the Earth is imagined to have begun. Filmed in landscapes associated with invisible energies and spiritual traditions, the work draws together stories from different cultures into a shared reflection on creation, belief and human imagination. Throughout the exhibition, spheres, talismans, amulets and game-like structures become metaphors for chance, possibility and transformation. Rather than offering certainty, Pocket Universe proposes that imagination itself can become a tool for navigating unstable times, suggesting that every new beginning starts with a shift in perspective.