Parasol Unit returns with a showcase of women from Central Asia and beyond

Georgina Adam, The Art Newspaper, May 7, 2026

The non-profit London space, which closed in 2020, enters a new era at the Venice Biennale with an exhibition of 11 female artists

Tala Madani’s video The Womb (2019) features in Turandot: To the Daughters of the East. The title of the show, featuring 11 women, is inspired by the Central Asian origins of the story of Turandot, later made famous by Puccini Courtesy the artist and David Kordansky Gallery

Tala Madani’s video The Womb (2019) features in Turandot: To the Daughters of the East. The title of the show, featuring 11 women, is inspired by the Central Asian origins of the story of Turandot, later made famous by PucciniCourtesy the artist and David Kordansky Gallery

 

London’s much-admired non-profit exhibition space, Parasol Unit, which closed in 2020 after 16 years, is back, and is now launching a new exhibition, Turandot: To the Daughters of the East, as an official collateral event during the Biennale.

The exhibition features 11 female artists from Central Asia and surrounding regions, and is curated by Ziba Ardalan, the founder of Parasol Unit. It is being held in the historic Palazzo Franchetti and will span the duration of the Biennale.

“Without the limits of a single location [as we had in London], we are well positioned to bring world-class exhibitions to wherever an art-related dialogue is needed most,” Ardalan tells The Art Newspaper. “I wanted to focus the importance of the East-West link, at the time in which the East has established itself as a huge force in every aspect: presenting this exhibition in Venice is a must.”

The exhibition spans multiple genres, from video work by Lida Abdul, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Daria Kim and Tala Madani; installations by Afruz Amighi, Saodat Ismailova and Nazira Karimi; sculpture by Huma Bhabha and Mona Hatoum; painting, video and spoken word by Farideh Lashai; and textile and sound work by Madina Joldybek. “There are some remarkable artists within this region, which I think we ought to know better,” says Ardalan, who is herself of Iranian origin. The title of the exhibition is inspired by the Turandot narrative—Turandokht in Farsi means daughter of Turan—and the show is in turn inspired by the historical relationship between Iran and Turan, a nomadic region in Central Asia. The story is best known now from the Puccini opera but it was originally adapted for the stage by the Venetian playwright Carlo Gozzi, premiering in 1762 in the now-demolished Teatro San Samuele, which stood just a few streets away from the Parasol Unit exhibition.

As part of this new era for Parasol, it also has a very different project in Athens, during the celebrations of the birth, 100 years ago, of the Swiss sculptor Heidi Bucher. “Turandot entails history, poetry and so much more,” Ardalan explains, “but it doesn’t define the future activities of the foundation.” There are more initiatives to come in the future.