Lydia Ourahmane’s first monograph, documenting a project developed through immersion during a several-month residency in Venice, as part of the 61st Venice Biennale.
This book accompanies 5 Works, Lydia Ourahmane's first institutional solo show in Italy, staged at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation in Venice and curated by Polly Staple, during the 61st Venice Biennale. As Ourahmane's first publication, the book sets a template for her future editorial projects. Central to this design is the custom typeface "LL," created by the artist with graphic designer Lorenzo Mason. Ourahmane's new commission, 5 Works, followed her residency at the Foundation, which saw her living and working in Venice from January to May 2026.
One of the show's prerequisites was that many of the artworks should be created in Venice. Ourahmane thus worked with Venetian craftspeople and technicians but also with organisations in the city and the surrounding Veneto region. 5 Works combines a wide range of visceral media—antique sculpture moulds, church lighting and decommissioned bed linen among them—with traditional conceptual gestures such as the recontextualization of found objects and the presentation of documentary processes. Several works in the exhibition are the direct result of negotiations, transactions and exchanges specific to historic sites and activist associations in Venice: the church of San Giovanni Crisostomo, Poveglia per tutti, Banco Lotto No. 10: Il Cerchio, Lavanderia LSG and TOCIA! Cucina e Comunità.
The publication encompasses the following elements: 282 photographs that Ourahmane shot during her residency in Venice while preparing 5 Works; an introduction to Ourahmane's work and to the exhibition, written by Staple; a conversation between Ourahmane and Staple, structured as a walking tour of the exhibition; installation views, by photographer Marco Cappelletti, sequenced in the order visitors encountered the works; the floor plan of the exhibition—appearing on the book's cover—complete with the list of works; and an endnote by Nicoletta Fiorucci.
Lydia Ourahmane (born 1992 in Saïda, lives and works in Barcelona) is an internationally renowned Algerian conceptual artist whose installations, sculptures, moving image and sound work create situations that have consequences beyond the walls of the institution, while negotiating the terms within. Exploring landscapes of displacement and community, she revises how the movement of objects and people are influenced by factors such as state restrictions and invisible barriers.
