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Oriol Vilanova will bring his archaeology of memory to Venice
The Spanish Pavilion at the 2026 Biennial will host an installation based on its postcard collection.
Oriol Vilanova (Manresa, 1980) has been collecting postcards for over twenty years, which he finds in markets, second-hand shops and on the run. He classifies them, organizes them and transforms them into pieces of art that question how memory is constructed, preserved and reinterpreted. With this obsession with the archive, he will arrive at the 2026 Venice Biennale , where he will represent Spain with the project Los restos, curated by Carles Guerra .
This project, chosen by a jury from several proposals, will display a large installation based on his vast collection of postcards. With them, Vilanova constructs a kind of anti-museum that puts into dialogue the fragility of memories and the way historical narratives are configured, working with what remains, the waste, discarded images and fragments of memory that time has left behind.
Vilanova has built his career exploring the narrative potential of reused objects. From them, he generates reflections on the role of images in cultural transmission, the value they are given within the artistic circuit and the mechanisms that determine what deserves to be preserved and what does not. His installations usually take the form of extensive mosaics, where postcards are organized according to chromatic, thematic or conceptual criteria, playing with chance and methodical classification.
Mudos, Oriol Vilanova (2017-en procés). Galeria Elba Benítez
Carles Guerra , curator of the project, has collaborated with the artist on several occasions and knows his way of working in depth. The exhibition they will present in Venice is conceived as an immersion in this universe of fragmented memories, a mutant archive that challenges the rigidity of traditional museum formats. The selection of Los restos for the Biennial has been the result of a long process of deliberation by a jury formed by professionals from the artistic and institutional fields. Among them, Santiago Herrero , director of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the AECID; Inmaculada Ballesteros , director of Spanish Cultural Action Programming; Manuel Segade , director of the Reina Sofia Museum; Agustín Pérez Rubio , curator of the Spanish Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennial; Imma Prieto , director of the Tàpies Museum; Tania Pardo , director of the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo; Santiago Olmo , director of the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (CGAC); Rosa Olivares , director of EXIT magazine; and Ignasi Aballí , artist of the Spanish Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Art Biennale. After an initial selection among seven proposals, Vilanova's was unanimously selected.
The Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which will be held between May 9 and November 22, 2026, will therefore become a large constellation of memories on paper, a project that, beyond aesthetics, raises questions about the way in which narratives of the past are constructed and blurred.
Celebración, Oriol Vilanova (2020). Galeria Elba Benítez
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