While visiting the Venice Biennale last year, Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi picked up a white stone outside the Australian Pavilion. He put the stone in his pocket, took it back to his home in western Sydney, and now it sits in his studio, a tangible reminder of his connection to the land.
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02-06, 2025"In our culture, you take something from the land, you hold it, and you promise to return it," he told ABC Arts. He will soon return the stone: he has been announced as Australia's representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale, hailed as the "Olympics of the art world," promising to fulfill his cultural commitment.
Sabsabi made a whirlwind one-day trip to Venice while completing a residency in Rome. At the time, he was also preparing his application with curator Michael Dagostino. "While writing the application, I said to Michael, 'Brother, mate, we're going to get it, and this stone is coming back here with me,'" Sabsabi recalled, expressing his confidence and anticipation.
He is taking over from Bigambul and Kamilaroi artist Archie Moore, who in 2024 became the first Australian artist to win the Venice Biennale's top prize, the Golden Lion, for his work, "kith and kin," which traced his family's history back 2,400 generations. "Moore's win was a milestone for all of us," Sabsabi said. "We're honored to be following in his footsteps. That work was significant for that time and place. Now we're continuing on that momentum," highlighting the importance of building upon past achievements.
Sabsabi's career spans 35 years and includes creating videos, mixed media, and installation art, with over 90 solo and group exhibitions in Australia and around the world. Although Sabsabi and Dagostino are tight-lipped about the specifics of their presentation at the Biennale, Sabsabi said their goal is for the work to be "inclusive" and "nurturing," and to "bring people together," creating a welcoming and engaging experience for visitors.
"The world is becoming increasingly polarized at the moment," Dagostino said. "With that polarization comes a lack of understanding and empathy for each other's experiences. Hopefully, this work will bring people with different viewpoints together to experience something collectively and try to understand each other's positions." Sabsabi acknowledged that the idea of the Venice Biennale could be overwhelming, but he appreciates that the event allows works by artists from around the world to speak to each other.
"Dialogue has to be placed within a global narrative. You can't exist in isolation," he said. Sabsabi was born in Tripoli, Lebanon, and moved to Australia at the age of 12 to escape the civil war. Growing up in western Sydney in the 1980s, he encountered a lot of racism. This experience introduced him to hip-hop, providing a voice and outlet during challenging times.
"Hip-hop was an alternative to the status quo at the time," he said in a 2024 interview with ABC National's The Art Show. Sabsabi would listen to Double J radio and record his favorite hip-hop songs onto tape, then exchange them with other fans. He was particularly drawn to the socially and politically conscious lyrics of artists like Public Enemy, as well as the rhythmic beats associated with Arabic percussion.
"It opened me up to African-American scholars like Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and Huey P. Newton, who you wouldn't learn about in school," he said. "Reading and listening to their perspectives, I empathized with their worldview, and I felt like they represented me." He began performing in Sydney's hip-hop scene as Peacefender, converting his garage into a studio and hanging out with a crew of rappers primarily from Aboriginal and Middle Eastern backgrounds.
But their home was firebombed – an experience that influenced his art, and Sabsabi expanded his creative practice from hip-hop to visual art in the 1990s. "It made what you needed to say and what you needed to do more urgent," he said. "I genuinely feel like I have a responsibility to actively engage with society and provide an open platform for dialogue, even if those dialogues are difficult. It's the only way we move forward, gain momentum, and grow together as a society," emphasizing the importance of art as a catalyst for social change.
In 2001, Sabsabi returned to Lebanon for the first time since migrating to Australia as a child. There, he learned about Sufism, the mystical dimension of Islam, and the ongoing impact of the civil war. "Sufism is about opening doors, inviting others to accept this knowledge. As human beings, we don't know everything...there are still huge mysteries," he told The Art Show. "From that moment on, I incorporated these possibilities into my work...for me, art is your own expression," highlighting the spiritual and personal dimensions of his artistic practice.
Although Sabsabi's experiences in Lebanon have profoundly influenced his work, he has been unable to visit the country since before the pandemic – first because of COVID-19, and then because of the war in Lebanon. "As a human being, as a Lebanese person, as an Arab, as a Muslim, as an Australian, what's happening is inhumane and unacceptable," he said. "This violence and destruction cannot continue. We need a way forward that allows all of us to coexist and respects the rights of the Palestinian people and their right to return to their homes and culture," expressing his deep concern and advocating for peace and justice.
"We have resilient skin, but we do get hurt. How can you not be affected when you have family, when you have friends (in Lebanon)?" Sabsabi and his family even booked flights to Lebanon after his residency in Rome ended, but their flights were canceled due to the war. "I speak openly about the traumatic memories of civil war and destruction from my childhood," the artist told ABC Arts. "But I don't want my children to grow up with those memories," highlighting his desire to protect his children from the trauma he experienced.
