BLURRING THE LINES
BLURRING THE LINES

Biennale 2026 the personal structure of Jyoti Shrestha!

event

Exhibition

date

May 9th—
November 22nd, 2026

place

Palazzo Mora
Venice, Italy

We are thrilled to announce that Blurring the Lines is hosted by The European Cultural Centre as part of PERSONAL STRUCTURES 2026 the biennial contemporary art exhibition organised and hosted by the ECC in Venice. The 8th edition will run from 9 May until 22 November 2026 in parallel with La Biennale. In a society marked by fractures, displacement, and accelerated transformation, Personal Structures – Confluences emerges as a space for encounter. It is a place where artistic practices, cultures, and disciplines intersect, contaminate one another, and generate new possibilities for coexistence.
 
For the PERSONAL STRUCTURES 2026 exhibition, Blurring the Lines is proud to showcase the work by 2025's laureate Jyoti Shrestha. "Chhyake" explores queerness, body image, and intergenerational trauma in Nepal through the metaphor and lived reality of skin. Drawing on the Nepal Bhasa term “Chhyake,” which refers to marks left by skin disease but was used within the artist’s family to describe freckles with connotations of shame, the work examines how bodies—particularly those that are queer, gender-nonconforming, or visibly marked—are policed by familial, societal, and patriarchal structures. Through a multidisciplinary practice incorporating self-portraiture, collage, and text, the project confronts these layered violences while asserting resilience and the right to exist authentically. Ultimately, it functions as both an archive and a reclamation, challenging inherited shame, making visible what is often silenced, and honoring the experiences and agency of those who have been made to feel unseen.

personalstructures.com ↗
jyotishrestha.com ↗

Biennale 2026 the personal structure of Jyoti Shrestha!

event

Exhibition

date

May 9th—
November 22nd, 2026

place

Palazzo Mora
Venice, Italy

We are thrilled to announce that Blurring the Lines is hosted by The European Cultural Centre as part of PERSONAL STRUCTURES 2026 the biennial contemporary art exhibition organised and hosted by the ECC in Venice. The 8th edition will run from 9 May until 22 November 2026 in parallel with La Biennale. In a society marked by fractures, displacement, and accelerated transformation, Personal Structures – Confluences emerges as a space for encounter. It is a place where artistic practices, cultures, and disciplines intersect, contaminate one another, and generate new possibilities for coexistence.
 
For the PERSONAL STRUCTURES 2026 exhibition, Blurring the Lines is proud to showcase the work by 2025's laureate Jyoti Shrestha. "Chhyake" explores queerness, body image, and intergenerational trauma in Nepal through the metaphor and lived reality of skin. Drawing on the Nepal Bhasa term “Chhyake,” which refers to marks left by skin disease but was used within the artist’s family to describe freckles with connotations of shame, the work examines how bodies—particularly those that are queer, gender-nonconforming, or visibly marked—are policed by familial, societal, and patriarchal structures. Through a multidisciplinary practice incorporating self-portraiture, collage, and text, the project confronts these layered violences while asserting resilience and the right to exist authentically. Ultimately, it functions as both an archive and a reclamation, challenging inherited shame, making visible what is often silenced, and honoring the experiences and agency of those who have been made to feel unseen.

personalstructures.com ↗
jyotishrestha.com ↗