Fremantle Biennale x sā Ladakh Biennale

The Fremantle Biennale x Sā Ladakh Biennale artist exchange is a cross-continental collaboration between sā Biennale (Leh, India) — Asia’s highest contemporary land art festival — and Fremantle Biennale (Walyalup/Fremantle, Western Australia). This artist-led partnership opens a unique transboundary dialogue on climate, culture and community, grounded in the shared values of both organisations: place-responsive practice, long-form artistic development, and climate-conscious programming.

Emerging from a mutual commitment to land, listening and local knowledge, the exchange fosters co-creation across vastly different yet equally fragile landscapes — from the mountainous deserts of Ladakh to the coastal waters of Walyalup. The collaboration explores sanctuary and climate optimism as generative frameworks for art-making, dialogue and connection.

As part of this exchange, Ladakhi artist Stanzin Tsepel (in-person residency) and Arunima Dazess (digital residency) present new works for the 2025 Fremantle Biennale. Tsepel’s installation explores glacial retreat and the relationship between mountain and sea, weaving Ladakhi and Australian textiles using traditional crochet techniques to evoke the fragility and interdependence of ecosystems. Dazess’ digital offering reflects on how technology mediates our experience of place in its absence — how we connect, observe, and belong from afar.

Western Australian artist Shupiwe Chongwe, hosted in Leh in July 2025 as part of the reciprocal residency, will create a new work for the sā Biennale in 2026. This exchange marks the beginning of an ongoing, reciprocal relationship between two festivals at the edge of distinct but interlinked environments — where artistic practice becomes a form of shared climate imagining.