Los Restos
May 9–November 22, 2026
Venice
Italy
The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, through the Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (AECID), and in collaboration with Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) are pleased to announce Los restos by artist Oriol Vilanova, curated by Carles Guerra, as the project selected to represent Spain at the 61st International Venice Biennale (May 9 to November 22, 2026).
Los restos draws on an extensive collection of postcards the artist has gathered over twenty years from flea markets and second-hand shops. These fragments of personal correspondence, often overlooked or discarded, embody the ruins of a past era.
An exploration of memory, fragility, and the cultural significance of what endures, Los restos transforms this accumulation into a meditation on what we choose to preserve and what remains when stories are filtered through everyday objects. The Spanish Pavilion will present this collection as an evolving ‘anti-museum’, where modest yet sustained gestures of gathering become a powerful response to our present concerns about preservation, accumulation, and the economies associated to cultural value.
The selection of Los restos was carried out by an independent jury convened by the Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (AECID), and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E). The jury was composed of: Santiago Herrero Amigo, Director of Cultural and Scientific Relations of AECID; Inma Ballesteros, Director of Programming at AC/E; Manuel Segade, Director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS); Agustín Pérez Rubio, curator of the Spanish Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2024; Imma Prieto, Director of the Museu Antoni Tàpies; Tania Pardo, Director of the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M); Santiago Olmo, Director of the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (CGAC); Rosa Olivares, Editor and Founder of EXIT magazine; and artist Ignasi Aballí, who represented Spain at the Biennale Arte 2022.
Alongside Oriol Vilanova and Carles Guerra, the team includes Ingrid Sala (Studio Manager) and Carolina Ciuti (Assistant Curator).
The Spanish Pavilion is organized by AECID in collaboration with AC/E, continuing their mission to foster the international projection of Spanish culture. This is the first exhibition in the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, following its full renovation in 2025.
Further details on the project will be announced at a press conference in Madrid in early 2026.
About Oriol Vilanova
Oriol Vilanova (Manresa, 1980) lives and works in Brussels. His artistic practice is characterized by a sustained, almost obsessive habit of collecting postcards, creating a vast personal archive that interrogates the museum as a system of accumulation, preservation, and valorization of cultural memory. His work has been exhibited internationally in solo presentations at Garage Cosmos, Brussels; Kunstmuseum Bochum; ICA Sofia; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Nouveau Musée National de Monaco; Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona; CA2M, Móstoles; M Museum, Leuven; and Museo Cerralbo, Madrid, among many others. He has participated in group exhibitions at institutions including IVAM, Valencia; Musée Picasso, Paris; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; MACBA, Barcelona; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; and the Centre Pompidou, Metz. His work is held in prominent collections such as MACBA, IVAM, CGAC, Fundación Botín, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, KANAL - Centre Pompidou, Brussels, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
About Carles Guerra
Carles Guerra (Amposta, 1965) is an independent researcher and curator based in Barcelona. He holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and is Associate Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Guerra has served as Director of the Primavera Fotogràfica de Catalunya (2004), Director of La Virreina Centre de la Imatge (2009–2011), Chief Curator at MACBA (2011–2013), and Executive Director of the Fundació Antoni Tàpies (2015–2020). Since 2023, he has been Artistic Director of the Museu de l’Art Prohibit in Barcelona. His curatorial projects include exhibitions dedicated to Francesc Tosquelles, Art & Language, Perejaume, Antoni Tàpies, Allan Sekula, Susan Meiselas, Harun Farocki, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay and many others. In 2023, he was appointed Inaugural Visiting Professor in Catalan Studies at New York University and the Institut Ramon Llull.
For further information please contact Lisa Thiel at Sutton: lisa@suttoncomms.com
