Sierra Leone has made its inaugural appearance at the 61st Venice Biennale with a pavilion titled 'Worlds of Today' located at the Liceo Guggenheim. Curated with a focus on "minor keys" rather than grand spectacles, the exhibition features Sierra Leonean artists Hawa-Jane Bangura, Ayesha Feisal, Hickmatu Bintu Leigh, and Abu Bakarr Mansaray alongside practitioners from other ECOWAS nations. The pavilion functions as a sensorial, porous space that prioritizes communal resilience and spiritual epistemologies over the commodification of identity.
This debut is significant for its rejection of nationalist silos in favor of a transnational, regional framework that highlights West African solidarity. By integrating artists from across the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the pavilion challenges the Western tendency to homogenize African art. It positions the region as a dynamic laboratory for global discourse, using art as an ethical and civic instrument to rehearse potential futures through a "Poetics of Relation."