Pakistan

The Pakistan Pavilion approaches Punjab – literally “the land of five rivers” – not as a fixed geography but as a material ground: a living continuum in which cultural knowledge and memory are carried through practices of making.

A leading Pakistani contemporary artist, Faiza Butt channels Punjab’s textile and craft traditions into bold, experimental forms. Moving beyond her decades-long practice in painting, drawing, and ceramics, she works across media – including sculpture and digital art – transforming inherited techniques into vessels for labour, memory, and narrative. Her approach treats making as a mode of critical research, foregrounding craft and collaboration as central to contemporary artistic discourse. The pavilion is realised through collective production: the works emerge with women artisans, acknowledging shared authorship and situating art-making as both communal and historically grounded.

Spatially conceived as a material journey, the exhibition brings the works together in layered encounters that emphasise tactility, rhythm, and presence. Punj•ab frames tradition as ever evolving, operating in minor keys while reclaiming histories, labour, and craft as vital to cultural continuity.