Armenia (Republic of)

During the six months of the Venice Biennale, the Armenian pavilion becomes The Studio, a working atelier in which Zadik Zadikian makes the process of creation visible. Situated within the Arsenale Militare, a historic industrial powerhouse, it is transformed into a neutral site of study, casting, assembly and formation through precision, repetition and attentive labour.

At its core is the most elementary unit – the block, or brick. Zadikian’s plaster casts are foundational forms from which human-scale, pigment-infused structures emerge. Through variation and recombination, distinct elements merge into unified wholes. Minimal and monumental, singular and interdependent, each unit holds the tension between one and many. The Studio functions as a workroom, factory and laboratory: a site of continuous production where art is not fixed, but evolving.

Here, meaning arises not through explanation but through witnessing the object come into being. The block is not a symbol, it’s a tangible fact. Sculpture is reduced to its essential presence, restored to its full material and haptic force. As curator Shafrazi says, The Studio offers the experience of “seeing and studying art in the making” – an artwork in constant navigation.