Venice Biennale: Steward-Research Fellowship supported by New Contemporaries

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Harmeet Rahal, Chori Chori [CAMRip] - Moving Image Installation, 2023

Harmeet Rahal (NC 2023) selected for the Venice Fellowship Programme.

New Contemporaries is delighted to announce that Harmeet Rahal (NC 2023) has been selected for the Steward-Research Fellowship Programme in Venice.

"It's an honour to be a part of the British Council's Venice Fellowship Programme. I'm looking forward to conducting fieldwork in Venice and drawing inspiration from both the Biennale and the city's cultural landscape. I am also excited to see how the programme’s goals of decoloniality manifest, and what new conversations can come out of it. As an artist navigating the intersection of art and academia, I see this fellowship as an opportunity to further develop my research skills and contribute meaningfully to these realms." ⁠

Harmeet Rahal (b. 1996, Mumbai) is an artist living in South-East London, working across moving-image, print, drawing, sound and installation. He did his MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London (2023), and his BFA at the Rachana Sansad AFAC in Mumbai (2019). Harmeet's current research explores the idea of resistance as time-travel, in opposition to the linear temporality of dominant narratives of history. ⁠

In 2023, he received the Almacantar Award at the Goldsmiths MFA Degree Show. His film 'Chori Chori [CAMRip]' is a finalist for the Circa Prize 2023. It has been screened in London (Piccadilly Lights Screen), Berlin (Limes, Kurfürstendamm), Milan (EssilorLuxottica) and Islamabad.⁠


About the Venice Steward-Research Fellowship Programme

The Venice Fellowships Programme, supported by the British Council, is a unique opportunity for creative individuals, students, researchers, artists and professionals at the early stages of their career, to spend a month in Venice during the world’s most important art and architecture biennales.

The Fellow will receive a £3,000 grant to cover the cost of their travel, accommodation and other costs associated to their stay.

Further information about the Venice Fellowship Programme can be found in British Council’s Fellowship Application Guidelines


Previous Research Fellows


New Contemporaries 2017 artist Katarzyna Perlak was awarded the Steward-Research Fellowship at the 2022 Venice Biennale, supported by New Contemporaries and the British Council.

I am excited to be the New Contemporaries / British Council Research Fellow at the Venice Art Biennale 2022. During the fellowship period I will be researching the notion of “wish landscape” and its relationship to the affect based utopian longings, hope, desire and the image of horizon. I will investigate the transference from ‘utopian visions’ to ‘utopian feelings’ and consequently the shift from the spatially oriented notions of utopia to those that are time oriented and based in ‘utopian experiences’. I am particularly interested in environments, spaces and landscapes that evoke and hold those experiences.

Katarzyna Perlak

Blog Post: Katarzyna Perlak


Katarzyna Perlak is a Polish born artist, based in London whose practice employs video, performance, textiles and installation. Perlak’s work examines potentiality of affect as a tool for registering and archiving both present continuous and past historical moments. Perlak background is in Philosophy, which she studied in Poland and Fine Art Media that she has studied in UK (Camberwell College of Arts and Slade School of Fine Art). Her films have been shown widely at film festivals across Europe. She was part of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2017, and shows internationally, including: Diaspora Pavilion, 57
th Venice Biennial, Art Night London, Liverpool Biennale, Jerwood Arts (SURVEY II), Leslie – Lohman Museum of Arts (NYC), The One Archive (LA) and Detroit Art Week.

Katarzyna Perlak, Happily Ever After (2019)



New Contemporaries 2017 artist David Walker Kennedy was the recipient of the Venice Biennale 2019: Steward-Research Fellowship in partnership with the British Council. New Contemporaries will support David as he spends a month in Venice during the 58th Venice Biennale, conducting independent research and mediating the British Pavilion exhibition by artist Cathy Wilkes

David (b. 1996, Glasgow) is a graduate of Painting & Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art. Selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2017 Kennedy has since worked individually as an artist and as a performer with collective Still House Plants, performing at Counterflows Festival, Glasgow; KRAAK Festival, Brussels; The Modern Institute, Glasgow and Transmission Gallery, Glasgow. Kennedy has also participated in residencies at the Pipe Factory, Glasgow and the CCA Creative Lab, Glasgow and recently completed the six-month OTO Projects UK artist residency supported by the Jerwood Foundation at Cafe OTO, London.

Blog Post: David Walker Kennedy


David Walker Kennedy, the shape of a head shoulders arms body and legs