Bienal Burgos
24 September 2026 - 10 January 2027
Burgos, Group exhibition
Spain
Lucy + Jorge Orta's major textile sculpture Bayt Al Sha'ar (House of Hair) will be presented at the inaugural Bienal Burgos, a city-wide contemporary art event taking place in Burgos from 24 September 2026 to 10 January 2027.
Organized by Fundación Caja de Burgos as part of its centenary celebrations, the first edition of Bienal Burgos, Afluente Panorama, transforms the historic city into an expansive exhibition platform spanning museums, heritage sites, and public spaces.
Bayt Al Sha'ar presents a speculative vision of nomadic living informed by Lucy Orta's research into vernacular architecture and the Bedouin weaving traditions of Al Sadu in Saudi Arabia. Rather than employing traditional hand-loom techniques, Orta has created a full-scale Bedouin tent woven on a digital loom at the TextielLab research centre. The installation comprises nine jacquard tapestry panels, each measuring 170 × 170 cm.
The tapestry imagery depicts a world in transformation, where traditional knowledge and ways of life are increasingly challenged by climate instability, environmental degradation, and conflict. Drawing upon photography, drawing, and collage, Orta constructs a visual narrative that unfolds as audiences move through the work. At the entrance, Gaia, the ancient Greek Earth goddess, welcomes visitors into the tent. Surrounded by constellations and the Pleiades star cluster, she evokes ancestral systems of celestial navigation that guided Arabian desert nomads through seasonal migration. Subsequent panels introduce real and imagined desert dwellers surviving in increasingly hostile conditions. As desertification intensifies and resources become scarce, conflict emerges, while other figures navigate the ruins of cities devastated by contemporary warfare. Yet the work offers a message of resilience and renewal through characters carrying water and nurturing seedlings from which new life begins to emerge.
Bayt Al Sha'ar is exhibited in the Almacén del Silo as part of the exhibition "Remember Me". The work was commissioned by the 2025 British Textile Biennial for the artists' survey exhibition Homo Mondialis.