Bugarin + Castle

Forma joins creative team for Scotland + Venice presentation at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2026

We are delighted to announce that Forma has joined the creative team for Bugarin + Castle’s presentation with Scotland + Venice at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Mount Stuart Trust and led by Dr Morven Gregor, Shame Parade will see the artists realise their most significant body of work to date in an ambitious exhibition encompassing sculpture, installation and moving image.

Image: Bugarin + Castle, Mr. Mimic [Submit to Sound], 2026, Photo (detail), Courtesy the Artists and Scotland + Venice © Bugarin + Castle.

Chris Rawcliffe, Artistic Director of Forma, said:

Bugarin + Castle’s Shame Parade exemplifies Forma’s longstanding supporting projects that are both career-defining and push the boundaries of artistic practice. From the earliest stages of development we have worked closely with the artists and curatorial team at Mount Stuart Trust, producing the new moving-image work Submit to Sound and supporting the project’s journey to Venice. We are proud to be returning to the Biennale with Scotland + Venice in this expanded role, building on our formative collaboration with Alberta Whittle in 2022.

From the early stages of the project, Forma has worked closely with Bugarin + Castle to support the conceptual development of Submit to Sound — a new moving-image work at the heart of the exhibition that layers voice feminisation exercises with songs developed with Manila-based band Kalye Teresa. Drawing on our expertise as commissioners, Forma joined the artists and curators at Mount Stuart Trust during the selection process and has continued working closely with them on their journey to Venice, acting as Producer of the film and contributing funds towards its realisation.

Unfolding in a carnival-like procession of subversion and defiance, Bugarin + Castle’s multidisciplinary practice explores overlapping geographies and time periods through a contemporary queer and trans reimagining of public shaming rituals. Known as rough music, charivari and scampanate, these centuries-old European rituals employed spectacle, sound and costume to discipline social transgressors. The artists transform these customs into a contemporary language for Shame Parade, bringing together fourteenth-century court transcripts, satirical eighteenth-century engravings, karaoke ballads, medieval armour and Filipino vehicle art. Through this process, they construct a layered world where historic voices and contemporary culture loop together in scenes that are both defiant and tender.

Bugarin + Castle said:

For the uneasy and passionate, from an uneasy and passionate duo. The unruly woman, the cuckold, the prostitute, the sodomiser, and other social transgressors were publicly mocked in historic shaming parades. We are interested in how both sound and cross-dressing were used not for expression but as tools of control. These raucous events are the genesis of our exhibition that traverses the historic and contemporary, Scotland and the Philippines. We make the work in a context today where the lives of those such as trans people and sex workers are being debated and impacted in courts and parliaments, often without those people being heard. The work does not tidy shame away, nor does it cling to it. Instead, we lean into the complexity, stickiness and collision of sound, voice and shame.

Bugarin + Castle’s Shame Parade marks Forma’s return to the Biennale with Scotland + Venice, following our collaboration with Alberta Whittle’s film Lagareh – The Last Born in 2022. This year our role has expanded to that of Production Manager of the entry itself, working in partnership with the Mount Stuart Trust and Scotland + Venice teams to realise the complex international presentation.

Dr Morven Gregor, Curator, Mount Stuart Trust and Sophie Crichton Stuart, Chair of Mount Stuart Trust, said:

We are excited to curate the work of Bugarin + Castle for Scotland + Venice in 2026. Shame Parade will be the artists' most ambitious presentation to date, reflecting their global outlook and practices across performance, film, architecture, sculpture and design. Their skill in animating historical research to foreground contemporary questions exemplifies the approach of Mount Stuart's Contemporary Visual Arts Programme. As the Programme celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2026 by presenting Bugarin + Castle in Venice, we look forward to bringing Shame Parade to Bute in 2027.

Emma Nicolson, Head of Visual Arts, Creative Scotland, added:

Bugarin + Castle are creating work that is visually striking, conceptually rich, and politically resonant. It promises to be a powerful and provocative encounter, and we’re proud to support its journey to be shown in Venice and then to audiences back home in 2027.

Bugarin + Castle’s Shame Parade will be presented by Scotland + Venice at Olivolo, Castello 59/C, 30122, Venice. We welcome you to join the artists and partners for a special launch event on Thursday 7 May 2026 from 3–5pm. The exhibition will open to the public from 9 May and run throughout the Biennale, welcoming thousands of visitors from across the world.

Following Venice, the exhibition will return to Mount Stuart on Bute in Summer 2027, before touring to venues throughout Scotland with more details to be announced.

Submit to Sound is a new work by Bugarin + Castle, commissioned by Mount Stuart Trust and co-commissioned and produced by Forma. It forms part of the artists' new exhibition, Shame Parade which is curated by Mount Stuart Trust and Dr Morven Gregor, and commissioned by Scotland + Venice, which presents the Scottish contribution to the 61st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, in 2026.

Scotland + Venice is a major international project that promotes the best of contemporary Scottish art and architecture on the world stage. Founded in 2003, Scotland + Venice supports the development of new work, fosters international connections and exchange, and positions Scotland as a vibrant centre for creative and cultural production. The project is a partnership between Creative Scotland, British Council Scotland, National Galleries Scotland, Architecture & Design Scotland, V&A Dundee and the Scottish Government.

The presentation is further supported by Art Fund, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Henry Moore Foundation, Arts Council England, Hope Scott Trust, Newcastle University, Pollyanna, Travelling Gallery, the University of Edinburgh and the Warburg Institute.