Manon Awst & Dylan Huw

Opens Saturday, May 9

Arts Council of Wales is delighted to participate as a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, following its last presentation in 2019, marking the 10th exhibition at this significant international visual arts festival.

Manon Awst, Dylan Huw and collaborators represent Cymru yn Fenis / Wales in Venice 2026 with Sownd, an exhibition jointly led by two Welsh galleries, Oriel Myrddin in Carmarthen and Oriel Davies in Newtown. Steffan Jones-Hughes from Oriel Davies serves as Curator, and Catherine Spring of Oriel Myrddin as Exhibition Project Director, with both acting as Co-Creative Directors.

The presentation is held for the first time at the Instituto Santa Maria della Pietà in Castello. La Pietà is a monumental complex built in the fourteenth century, adjacent to Riva degli Schiavoni and within accessible walking distance of the Biennale Giardini and Arsenale sites. It is free to visit.

Manon Awst and Dylan Huw's Sownd is a collaborative sculptural environment that navigates the materialities of language and landscape. Conceived as one continuous installation, it sees organic materials, found objects, texts, and sonic and architectural interventions combine to respond to the historic Instituto Santa Maria della Pietà. Everything within the work is sculptural—including language—creating a space where form and meaning are inseparable. Guided by a poetic associative logic, the work gathers and assembles fragments into a living exhibition, incorporating samples from a parallel site-responsive programme in Wales during the Biennale Arte 2026's run.

Sownd is a Cymraeg/Welsh word meaning both "stuck" and "foundationally sound," encapsulating the project's exploration of tension and resilience. This duality frames an inquiry into how landscapes and languages—particularly minoritised ones—become sites of persistence and vulnerability. The artists have drawn on research in Welsh peatlands, sticky and unstable environments that both conceal and reveal vast scales of material history. These sites, layered with organic matter and cultural memory, become a terrain from which the artists navigate sedimented histories of language, culture, and ecology. The collaboration between Awst and Huw invites connections across borders, informed by Wales' celebrated history of site-specific collective practice and its oral poetic tradition.

Manon Awst commented, "Cymru yn Fenis provides an opportunity of a lifetime, and I'm thrilled to be working with Dylan, Oriel Davies and Oriel Myrddin on Sownd. Our project sparks dialogue between the wet, sticky landscapes of Wales and Venice, forming new collaborative pathways for sculpting language and material. It is an honour to share the work with international audiences as a Collateral Event at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia and locally across Wales."

Dylan Huw commented, "It's been the creative thrill of my life bringing Sownd to fruition, in community with Manon and the project's many collaborators. Our plans for the show were truly activated when we first encountered the historic architecture of La Pietà and have been vastly enriched by the sensibilities of collaborators here in Wales' north-west. We can't wait to share this work with visitors from all over the world from May, building on the deep-rooted legacy of Cymru yn Fenis for generations of practitioners and audiences in Wales.

Curator and Co-Creative Director Steffan Jones-Hughes of Oriel Davies said, "Oriel Davies and Oriel Myrddin are delighted to collaborate on this Collateral Event at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. This is a presentation that connects Cymru and Venice in a unique way, through our language, culture and geographical space and we look forward to sharing more about the nature of the work as we approach the exhibition date.

I'm delighted to be supporting Manon and Dylan in the curation of the exhibition in Venice and locations here in Cymru. We want the exhibition to truly be accessible to both international art audiences and local communities here in Wales. Manon Awst is one of our most interesting artists and working with Dylan Huw and their collaborators, we are determined to make this exhibition truly generous in its engagement with artists, scientists, ecologists, and audiences.

Co-Creative Director Catherine Spring of Oriel Myrddin added, "I'm thrilled to be collaborating with Manon, Dylan, and Oriel Davies. With Oriel Myrddin recently reopened following a major redevelopment, our involvement with Cymru yn Fenis marks an exciting new chapter for the gallery. We're proud and energised to support the creative vision and direction of this presentation with its multilingual and multidisciplinary approach."

Cymru yn Fenis/Wales in Venice is commissioned and managed by Arts Council of Wales and Wales Arts International with support and collaboration from the Welsh Government and British Council.