'What if I told you the most compelling art show in Venice right now consisted of black-and-white photos of Italian archives?
The New Delhi-based artist Dayanita Singh has been taking pictures for 25 years of these repositories, located in public institutions, private homes and hidden libraries: bundled papers, acid-free boxes lined up neatly on shelves, books swaddled in protective fabric, even piles of 17th-century wills, unopened because the archivist has no authority to open them.' – Aruna D'Souza
Aruna D'Souza, Jason Farago and Blake Gopnik review the '6 Must-See Venice Shows' during the Venice Biennale 2026 for The New York Times, including Dayanita Singh: ARCHIVIO at the Archivio di Stato until 31 July 2026.
Image: Installation view, Dayanita Singh: ARCHIVIO, Archivio di Stato, Venice, 2026. Image by Mark Henley.
9 May 2026
