Emir Šehanović

Following its presentation at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Terram Intelligere: INTERSTITIUM re-emerges in a new and markedly different context: the King Nikola’s Castle in Nikšić, Montenegro, the European Capital of Culture 2030. This relocation is not conceived as a repetition or simple transfer of an existing installation, but as a reconfiguration—one that shifts the project from a staged exhibition environment into a situated, site-responsive condition.

On view: 24 April – 19 June, 2026
King Nikola’s Castle in Nikšić, Montenegro

Originally curated by Miljana Zeković in collaboration with artists Ivan Šuković, Emir Šehanović, and architect Dejan Todorović, the Montenegrin pavilion in Venice positioned itself not as a national showcase, but as a spatial and conceptual inquiry. Installed within the ArteNova gallery at Campo San Lorenzo and visited by over 21,000 people during the Biennale, the project foregrounded the land as a complex, living system—biological, cultural, and infrastructural—resisting reduction to image or representation. Through the cultivation of bacterial cultures embedded in translucent polycarbonate structures, the installation exposed processes of growth, transformation, and interaction unfolding beyond the limits of human perception.

In Nikšić, however, the project undergoes a fundamental shift. The move “home” introduces not only a new audience, but a new spatial, historical, and epistemological framework. The King Nikola’s Castle, situated within the urban fabric of Nikšić, offers a linear architectural environment that stands in contrast to the controlled scenographic conditions of the Venetian display. While the space allows for the presence of natural light, the installation adopts a more controlled, artificial lighting regime, producing an atmosphere closer to a laboratory than to a theatrical setting. Here, continuity replaces enclosure, and the installation must negotiate its presence within a space marked by both historical memory and contemporary transformation.

This transition transforms the role of architecture within the project. In Venice, the architecture of the gallery space functioned primarily as a controlled environment within which the installation could unfold as a perceptual and ambient experience. In Nikšić, existing architecture becomes an active mediator. The castle does not simply host the work; it conditions it. Light, scale, material presence, and spatial sequence all participate in shaping the behaviour of the installation, positioning architecture as a dynamic interface between biological processes, environmental conditions, and human perception.

Within this context, the notion of the interstitium—central to the project—undergoes a parallel transformation. Borrowed from molecular biology to describe the space between cells through which fluids, signals, and energies circulate, the interstitium initially operated as a conceptual framework. In Nikšić, it takes spatial form: emerging in the gaps between existing and inserted structures, between laboratory and exhibition, between visibility and opacity.

Crucially, the biological systems presented in Nikšić are not transported from Venice but cultivated locally, in collaboration with the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering in Belgrade and scientific institutions in Montenegro. This transformation resonates with the broader framework of Nikšić as a site of ongoing cultural and urban redefinition. Envisioned as a future European Capital of Culture and the centre of cultural events in the Western Balkans, under the concept of the “Open City,” Nikšić positions itself as a space of exchange, experimentation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Within this setting, Terram Intelligere: INTERSTITIUM unfolds not as a closed installation, but as an open process—one that mirrors the city’s own trajectories of connection, adaptation, and reconfiguration. What emerges is a rearticulation of architecture itself: no longer a static container or formal object, but a mediating practice that enables encounters between human and non-human actors, between knowledge systems, and across temporal scales that exceed immediate perception. In this sense, to “understand the land” is not to define or represent it, but to engage with its processes, attune to its rhythms, and inhabit the spaces in-between.

Text written by Miljana Zeković, curator

Terram Intelligere: INTERSTITIUM, Commissioner: Mirjana Đurišić / Curator: Miljana Zeković / Exhibitors: Ivan Šuković, Dejan Todorović, Emir Šehanović / Producer: Jelena Božović.