As a student at the Royal College of Art, Tarini Malik studied the works of Sir John Akomfrah. For an Indian-born, Zambia-raised young curator living in London, Akomfrah’s films about the diasporic experience moved her – and helped her situate herself in British society. She never imagined that ten years later she would be working with Akomfrah on one of his most significant exhibitions to date – the commission for the British Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.

Curating a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale is a coveted gig – but particularly prestigious when you are appointed to work with a much-revered artist. But Malik has all the credentials for the job – currently curator at the Royal Academy, she left the Whitechapel in 2023, and previously worked in the curatorial department at the Hayward Gallery. She was also Issac Julien’s Head of Exhibitions. And it’s not her first time working on the Biennale – in 2015, she contributed to the main exhibition.

Malik has spent the last year working intensively with Akomfrah and his team on the British Pavilion which will finally be unveiled this week, and runs until November. The exhibition, Listening All Night To The Rain, will respond to the city of Venice and to the institution and context of the British Pavilion – part of Malik’s role has been finding ways to make the presentation accessible to wider audiences while facing all the challenges of presenting moving image work at such an ambitious scale. Malik shares more with The Wick Culture here about how the pavilion has come together, and what she does to wind down in Venice and London after long hours installing art.