Titled SADDEXLEEY (sa-DEH-ley), the Pavilion takes its name from a Somali poetic form shaped through triadic composition. Derived from saddex (sa-DEH), meaning three, it describes a generative logic in which sense unfolds through repetition, variation, and relation. Rooted in Somalia’s oral tradition, where poetry functions as social architecture and lived philosophy, the exhibition spatializes poetic form in resonance with Koyo Kouoh’s theme of the Biennale Arte 2026 In Minor Keys. Word, sound, and matter converge as a living poem, oscillating between fragility and endurance. SADDEXLEEY proposes belonging not as a declaration, but as sensation.

Working across geographies, languages, and disciplines, the artists explore memory and inheritance through textile, poetry, and film. Ayan Farah engages textiles and sediment as carriers of time, allowing material to hold what cannot be spoken directly. Asmaa Jama works across film, performance, and archival gestures to question how heritage is documented and reactivated in space. Warsan Shire’s poetry gives voice to displacement and intimacy, shaping language as both witness and archive. Together, their practices converge through rhythm, matter, and voice. Memory is not narrated. It is felt.