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sā Ladakh Biennale 2026, the inaugural edition of sā Ladakh, took place across the lived landscapes of Ladakh, unfolding at an altitude above 3000 metres along the Leh-Kargil corridor. Conceived as a non-white cube biennale, it positioned contemporary artistic practice within ecological, cultural, and social terrains. Under the theme ‘Signals from Another Star’, the Biennale foregrounded regeneration, learning, and ethical engagement, inviting artists and audiences to attune themselves to the frequencies of land, memory, climate, and lived experience.
Moving beyond a festival-led format, sā Ladakh Biennale was envisioned as a long-term cultural initiative rooted in collaboration, regional partnerships, and sustained learning. Founded in 2023, the Biennale emphasised zero-to-minimal-footprint artistic practices and equitable curatorial approaches in one of the world’s most ecologically sensitive regions. By bringing together artists from Ladakh and international contexts in equal measure, it fostered meaningful exchange between local knowledge systems and global contemporary practices.
Education, accessibility, mindful tourism, and engagement with differently abled communities formed key pillars of the Biennale’s framework. Through workshops, residencies, community-led initiatives, and site-responsive artistic projects developed in close dialogue with local communities, sā Ladakh Biennale 2026 positioned Ladakh not only as a site of exhibition but as a space for sustained cultural exchange, long-term engagement, and shared responsibility. It reimagined how large-scale cultural initiatives could function with care, accountability, and imagination within fragile landscapes.
CURATORS
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ལེ་ གྲོང་ རྙིང་པ་
Old Leh Town
پرانا لیہ شہر
Stanzin Wangail presents MANMO, drawing on the Ladakhi folktale of the 'Manmo', a supernatural female presence woven into local oral traditions. Through this enigmatic figure, the work explores the spiritual soul of Leh Old Town (Kharyok), where ancient houses, sacred spirits and inherited stories quietly endure. 'Manmo' becomes a whisper from the past, revealing the hidden memories, emotions and unseen energies that continue to inhabit forgotten homes and historic streets.
Tenzin Olden presents a site-specific installation that peels back the layers of Leh Old Town's built landscape. Weathered walls, aged stone, mud plaster and abandoned structures become repositories of Ladakh's vernacular knowledge, carrying traces of the people, practices and histories that shaped them. By drawing attention to cracks, scars and imperfections, the work reframes them not as evidence of decline, but as living records of memory, craftsmanship and resilience.
Inspired by a widely remembered Ladakhi folktale: that throwing a worn-out shoe towards the tail of a rainbow would cause it to burst open, spilling unimaginable treasures. Drawing on oral tradition and collective imagination, the work revisits this childhood myth to reflect on wonder, longing and the dreams we inherit. In doing so, it asks how the stories we grow up with continue to shape our understanding of fortune, value and the lives we aspire to build.
Stanzin Wangail presents MANMO, drawing on the Ladakhi folktale of the 'Manmo', a supernatural female presence woven into local oral traditions. Through this enigmatic figure, the work explores the spiritual soul of Leh Old Town (Kharyok), where ancient houses, sacred spirits and inherited stories quietly endure. 'Manmo' becomes a whisper from the past, revealing the hidden memories, emotions and unseen energies that continue to inhabit forgotten homes and historic streets.
བ་སྒོ
Basgo
بسگو
Burrowed in Time explores hibernation as a cycle of endurance through marmot burrows, reflecting ecological rhythms, climate and survival. Depicting marmots gathered around a precious water source, Dorjay’s installation evokes seasonal memory, adaptation and the interconnectedness of life and environment.
At Basgo Gompa, the annual application of karsi, a traditional Ladakhi limewash, becomes a collective act of care. Through shared labour, meals and ritual, the artist and community transform conservation into a living practice of renewal across generations.
Burrowed in Time explores hibernation as a cycle of endurance through marmot burrows, reflecting ecological rhythms, climate and survival. Depicting marmots gathered around a precious water source, Dorjay’s installation evokes seasonal memory, adaptation and the interconnectedness of life and environment.
ལི་ཀིར་
Likir
لِکِر
Drawing on Likir’s pottery traditions, Tundup Dorjay’s installation brings together discarded pottery shards collected across Ladakh, tracing historic routes of craftsmanship and exchange. As carriers of cultural memory, these fragments reconnect dispersed histories to their origins. Assembled into a tapestry-like surface over an abandoned ruin, they evoke restoration without seeking completeness.
Shupiwe Chongwe’s site-specific installation, 'Vessel', draws on Ladakhi pottery traditions and locally sourced clay, imagining vessels as living entities. Exposed to sun, wind and rain, they gradually transform, revealing the relationship between craft, climate and landscape. Their slow weathering reflects environmental change and our shared responsibility to care for the natural world.
Drawing on Likir’s pottery traditions, Tundup Dorjay’s installation brings together discarded pottery shards collected across Ladakh, tracing historic routes of craftsmanship and exchange. As carriers of cultural memory, these fragments reconnect dispersed histories to their origins. Assembled into a tapestry-like surface over an abandoned ruin, they evoke restoration without seeking completeness.
ནུར་ལ་
Nurla
نورلا
3000 Realms transforms Nurla Valley’s old wooden bridge into a sonic passage between realms. Adorned with bells symbolising wisdom, the bridge invites reflection and introspection. Connecting iron, wind and flowing water, the installation imagines the river as time, the bridge as an instrument and the wind as its conductor.
'Remnants of Belonging' is a site-specific installation shaped by its mountainous surroundings. Using locally sourced stone, clay and bone, the work follows the landscape’s natural contours, reflecting on cultural transition, ecological change and ancestral knowledge. Reimagining Himalayan spiritual and artistic traditions through contemporary sculpture, it explores the landscape as both material and memory.
3000 Realms transforms Nurla Valley’s old wooden bridge into a sonic passage between realms. Adorned with bells symbolising wisdom, the bridge invites reflection and introspection. Connecting iron, wind and flowing water, the installation imagines the river as time, the bridge as an instrument and the wind as its conductor.
ལ་མ་ཡུ་རུ་
Lamayuru
لامایورو
The installation explores speculation around lithium extraction in Ladakh through cross-shaped markers resembling territorial surveys. Made from wool sourced from nomadic communities, marigold dye and local twigs, the work connects pastoral traditions with imagined futures of resource extraction. It reflects on changing relationships with land and how extraction begins through mapping and speculation.
Rising from the Soil, Soaring to the Sky recreates traditional Himalayan carpet designs using local soil across adjoining rooftops. Evoking warmth, hospitality and belonging, the installation invites visitors to walk through its fragile patterns. Gradually dissolving through footsteps, wind and rain, the work reflects on impermanence, ecological vulnerability and the changing landscapes of home.
The installation explores speculation around lithium extraction in Ladakh through cross-shaped markers resembling territorial surveys. Made from wool sourced from nomadic communities, marigold dye and local twigs, the work connects pastoral traditions with imagined futures of resource extraction. It reflects on changing relationships with land and how extraction begins through mapping and speculation.
ཧེ་ནིས་ཀོད་
Henasku
ہینسکوٹ
At Henasku, Blue Scaffolds in the Zbayul transforms utilitarian scaffolding into a sculptural intervention. Set against an abandoned aqueduct, its blue structures evoke water and celestial distance. Responding to the valley’s contours and layered histories, their repeating lines and precarious angles explore visibility, disappearance, instability and the relationship between human structures and landscape.
Stanzin Tsepel’s 'Traces of Flow' explores the impact of human activity and climate change on glacier-dependent mountain landscapes. Through synthetic colours evoking warmth and drying, contrasted with white pebble lines tracing remaining water, the installation reflects on environmental loss, shifting water systems, memory and survival in the Anthropocene.
At Henasku, Blue Scaffolds in the Zbayul transforms utilitarian scaffolding into a sculptural intervention. Set against an abandoned aqueduct, its blue structures evoke water and celestial distance. Responding to the valley’s contours and layered histories, their repeating lines and precarious angles explore visibility, disappearance, instability and the relationship between human structures and landscape.
མུལ་བེཁ་
Mulbekh
مُلبیخ
Stanzin Samphel’s 'The Memory of Routes' draws on Ladakh’s Chali weaving traditions, shaped by nomadic life, climate and terrain. Reimagining textile patterns at an architectural scale, the installation traces histories of movement, trade and cultural continuity. Its black-and-white forms evoke Ladakh’s contrasting landscapes, exploring relationships between presence and absence, permanence and impermanence.
Ayan Biswas’s geodesic dome, constructed from plant-based bioplastics, becomes both shelter and archive. Featuring prints of medicinal plants used in Sowa-Rigpa, the installation draws on Sapi village’s rich ecological and healing traditions. Bringing together science, ecology and cosmology, it reflects on climate change, disappearing landscapes and the vulnerability of ancestral knowledge.
Stanzin Samphel’s 'The Memory of Routes' draws on Ladakh’s Chali weaving traditions, shaped by nomadic life, climate and terrain. Reimagining textile patterns at an architectural scale, the installation traces histories of movement, trade and cultural continuity. Its black-and-white forms evoke Ladakh’s contrasting landscapes, exploring relationships between presence and absence, permanence and impermanence.
ཧུན་དར་མན་
Hunderman
ہُنڈرمن
At Hunderman Village, Zahara Batool’s 'Invisible Threads' explores regeneration through collective acts of repair. Working with local women artisans, embroidered, crocheted and knitted fragments are placed across collapsed structures. Through shared making, the installation reconnects people, materials and memories, transforming ruins into spaces of care, continuity and dialogue between past and future.
At Hunderman Village, Zahara Batool’s 'Invisible Threads' explores regeneration through collective acts of repair. Working with local women artisans, embroidered, crocheted and knitted fragments are placed across collapsed structures. Through shared making, the installation reconnects people, materials and memories, transforming ruins into spaces of care, continuity and dialogue between past and future.
An Art Pilgrim in Ladakh
The Biennale was non-ticketed and did not centre on a single opening or closing ceremony. Visitors could encounter works at different points along the route and engage at their own pace. Rather than centring around a single launch moment, sā Ladakh Biennale unfolded as an open journey through art, community, climate and culture, inviting visitors to engage at their own rhythm across the Leh–Kargil corridor. Like a personal pilgrimage through Ladakh’s landscapes and Silk Route histories, projects remained accessible throughout the Biennale period, allowing time to revisit works, spend longer within villages, landscapes, cultures and conversations, and encounter place through slower, more meaningful ways of engaging.
PARTNERS
Regional Government & Facilitation Partner
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Diplomatic and Cultural Exchange Partners
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Cultural Institutions
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CSR Partner
NPOs and Foundations
Facilitation Partners
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Media Partner
Legal Support Partner
Hospitality Partner
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