Lubaina Himid (Venice Biennale Special)

A conversation with Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid, who is representing Britain at the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale with 'Predicting History: Testing Translation’. The episode also features curator Ese Onojeruo discussing the making of the exhibition.

Himid’s exhibition explores what it means to make a home in a place not designed to welcome you. Through large-scale paintings, painted objects and a soundscape created in collaboration with Magda Stawarska, the pavilion becomes an immersive meditation on belonging, migration and identity. Throughout the exhibition, groups of figures debate, negotiate and imagine new ways of living together, while a series of questions posed across the works ask who gets to feel at home — and who is made to feel out of place.

The British Pavilion itself, where these conversations were recorded, becomes part of the conversation. Sitting prominently at the top of the Giardini, the neo-classical building is reimagined as a space that feels bright, airy and welcoming, yet threaded with subtle unease. In this episode, Himid and Onojeruo discuss the origins of 'Predicting History: Testing Translation', the role of sound and architecture within the exhibition, and notions around home, identity and belonging in Britain today.

Lubaina Himid: Predicting History: Testing Translation is on at the British Pavilion, Venice Biennale, from 10 May – 22 November 2026.

The British Pavilion is commissioned by the British Council and supported by Frieze, in its second partnership with the British Council Commission for the British Pavilion; Cork Street Galleries – an initiative of The Pollen Estate; the Henry Moore Foundation; Rothschild Foundation; the Girlfriend Fund; and digital partner Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Keep up with us:

Lubaina Himid: @lubainapics

Ese Onojeruo: @ese_onojeruo

Alayo Akinkugbe: @alayoakinkugbe @ablackhistoryofart @asharedgaze