Saeed Hirad-Warsame to represent the UK at the Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a huge international art exhibition that takes place every two years where artists from all over the world showcase their work. The UK have a pavilion at the exhibition, run by the British Council – and for 2026, we became the only council in the UK to work with the British Council to offer a place on their fellowship for one of our residents.
The Venice Fellowships Programme 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. Find out more about the Fellowship scheme and meet all of this year’s fellows.
As our successful applicant, Saeed will spend a month in Venice during the world’s most important art and architecture biennials. As exhibition ambassadors at the British Pavilion, the Fellows enrich and activate the exhibition programme. They engage visiting members of the public and expand the impact of the show. They also have the opportunity to develop their own research or practical creative projects and use the Biennale as a platform for artistic and professional development.
We spoke to Saaed to find out more about who he is, how this came about and what he’s looking forward to in Venice. Read on to find out more:
Tell us about yourself
I’m a Spoken Word Poet with a background as a creative producer who has worked across audio, video, and community-led projects with a strong focus on storytelling and representation. My work sits at the intersection of media, culture and social impact, particularly amplifying voices that are often underrepresented.
I was born at Ealing Hospital and I grew up in Southall. I lived and breathed the borough, which was the only place I knew for much of my time growing up.
I feel a sense of pride when seeing familiar faces from local shops, parks, libraries and even the occasional bus driver on my usual routes around Ealing, where I think about how the borough moves through and evolves, especially in a time as I see more inclusion through cultural, creative and community events.
I enjoy the many greenery aspects of Ealing, the various trips to the parks, especially my local park in Rectory Park/Northala Fields and take in the nature to relax and reboot, especially to get inspiration for my poetry and life, taking in the beauty of Ealing’s green space.
How has your creative practice developed?
My creative practice really started to take shape during my time at the University of West London, where I explored different forms of media – from radio production to video and podcasting. That period was about experimentation and learning the technical and creative foundations.
After graduating, I began applying those skills in real-world contexts through Ealing-based opportunities. Working on New Gen Festival was a big step for me – I moved into a more hands-on production role, coordinating technical teams, filming live events, and helping shape how content was captured and shared. It pushed me to think not just creatively, but also logistically and collaboratively.
Through the Ealing Bradford Creative Exchange, I’ve also been able to engage with a wider network of creatives, which has expanded my perspective on collaboration and cultural exchange. These experiences helped me move from being someone who creates content to someone who produces and facilitates creative spaces.
Overall, developing my practice in Ealing has been about growth – from learning the craft to leading projects and contributing to the borough’s cultural ecosystem.
You co-direct DIAXPORA, how did that come about?
DIAXPORA came from a very personal and observed gap. I noticed that a lot of media spaces – especially in audio and radio – weren’t designed with neurodivergent people in mind, either in how stories were told or how environments were structured.
At the same time, I was meeting people with powerful stories and perspectives who didn’t feel comfortable or represented in traditional creative spaces. That really stayed with me.
So DIAXPORA was created as a response to that – a peer-led audio collective that centres neurodivergent experiences, not as something to be explained, but as something to be expressed on its own terms. We focus on creating sensory-aware, accessible content, like immersive audio documentaries, and building a community where people feel safe to contribute and collaborate.
It’s also about culture – connecting different communities through sound, storytelling, and shared experience. For me, DIAXPORA isn’t just a project, it’s a platform that challenges how media is made and who it’s made for.
Why did you apply for the Venice Biennale Fellowship?
What drew me to the fellowship is the opportunity to be part of something that sits at the intersection of culture, collaboration and international exchange. The Venice Biennale is such a globally recognised space for creative dialogue and being able to experience that while representing Ealing felt really aligned with where I am in my journey.
A big part of my work is about creating platforms for underrepresented voices and building community through media, so the chance to engage with practitioners from different backgrounds, disciplines, and countries really excites me. I see it as an opportunity not just to observe, but to learn how other creatives approach storytelling, accessibility and collaboration on a global scale.
I’m especially looking forward to experiencing the British Pavilion and understanding how the UK is represented within that wider international context. I’m interested in how ideas around identity, place and community are explored within the exhibition, and how that can inform my own practice.
Beyond that, I’m excited to immerse myself in Venice as a place – its history, architecture, and atmosphere. I think being in a completely different environment will challenge my perspective and inspire new ways of thinking, particularly in how I approach sound, storytelling and space.
Most importantly, I’m looking forward to bringing those experiences back to Ealing – sharing insights, building connections, and finding ways to translate what I’ve learned into something meaningful for my local community.
You will be developing poetry in Venice, tell us about your poetry
Poetry plays a really important role in my practice because it’s often the starting point for how I process ideas, emotions, and experiences. Before anything becomes audio or visual, it usually exists as words, and poetry allows me to explore those ideas in a way that feels more instinctive and less restricted.
A lot of my work, especially through DIAXPORA, is centred around storytelling that is sensory and emotionally driven. Poetry naturally feeds into that because of its rhythm, its openness, and the way it allows space for interpretation. It doesn’t demand a single meaning – it invites people to feel something in their own way, which is important when thinking about neurodivergent audiences and accessibility.
It also helps me approach storytelling more intentionally. When I’m creating audio pieces or immersive sound work, I think about pacing, tone, and silence in a similar way to how I would structure a poem. So, poetry isn’t separate from my practice – it informs how I build narratives across everything I do.
Developing poetry in Venice feels especially significant because it gives me the chance to respond in real time to a new environment – the sounds, the atmosphere, the cultural context – and capture that in a raw and immediate way. I see it as both a personal reflection tool and something that can later evolve into collaborative or audio-based work when I return.
A huge thank you to Saeed for taking the time to give us such full and interesting answers. We wish him the best at the Biennale and look forward to bringing you more about his experiences later in the year.
