Impressions from the Venice Art Biennale 2026
Day 1/5 - visiting 28 pavilions near and in Giardini
The Venice Art Biennale was established in 1895 and has been, since, the world's largest fair of contemporary art, consisting of:
- national pavilions (99 this year situated in Giardini - a garden area, Arsenale - a former ship building complex and various other locations around Venice), in which countries decide which artist will represent them.
- the curator's international exhibition, in which artists (110 this year) are invited individually and presented in the central pavilions in Giardini and Arsenale.
In addition to the official sites, hundreds of exhibitions are organised during the Biennale by the world's leading art galleries, foundations, and Venice institutions, which are held in churches, palazzos, museums, and cultural spaces around the city.
This year's Biennale curator set the theme "In Minor Keys", inviting artists and visitors to slow down, and listen to the lower tones; she suggests contemplation and reflection.
But first things first, coffee!
Serra dei Giardini - cafe/bistro right next to the entrance into the Giardini complex. Built in 1894 for the purpose of conserving and preparing plants for the first Art Exhibition in the Giardini complex.
Next, before entering Giardini, we visited pavilions near it: Cuba, the Holy See, Catalonia and Iceland:
Hombre Libre,
Cuba Pavilion
Tintoretto's Creation of the Animals, which can be seen in the Academia Gallery in Venice, in a modern visualisation,
Holy See pavilion
In this year's Holy See pavilion, artists like Patti Smith, Jim Jarmusch, Brian Eno, Anselm Kiefer, among others, took part. Patty Smith performed at the opening.
Next, right after the entrance to Giardini, a huge, origami-like sculpture of a deer hangs from a crane truck! There is a movie about it, a captivating story about how the artist transported this deer sculpture all the way from the front lines in Ukraine through Europe to Venice!
Security Guarantees,
Ukrainian Pavilion
Starting with the pavilion which engaged people the most: Japan. The artist filled the pavilion with 200 silicon babies, some of them firmly positioned and some for visitors to pick up, carry around, feed, and change their diapers! Some babies are positioned around TV screens playing Japanese family shows. A very Instagrammable set-up, which seems to be an important criterion for conceptual art today. This artist is a queer coparent of twin babies, addressing the issue of parenthood modelling through media in Japan.
Grass Babies, Moon Babies
Japan Pavilion
UK: This is one of the most powerful exhibitions this year (although I think it responds better to the 2024 Biennale theme - Foreigners Everywhere). From the general idea - what is home, how to make one place a home, what if that place does not want you? Powerful, imposing paintings, standing in front of them, you feel the life spilling out. The artist is challenging you to ask yourself many questions, like, how do you feel where you live, do you feel you belong, and might you ever leave?
Predicting History: Testing Translation
UK Pavilion
Germany is another strikingly strong and inspiring exhibition that also deals with the concept of home, but in a different way. Created by two artists: one has enveloped the pavilion building with 3 million tiny tiles, copying the facade of the socialist housing block in East Germany, where she grew up and which will soon be destroyed (see in the next post how the Indian pavilion also refers to a vanished home). She even copied the graffiti on the facade. Extraordinary, and what's sad is that most visitors do not notice this.
As the perfect other half of the exhibition, the pavilion's interior plays on interiors and the notion of everyday objects and furniture in apartments in Germany in the 90's. The artist said she was interested in "archaeological history of the present". It made me think about: can our home aesthetics predict our political views? Do people on one side of the political spectrum choose similar chairs? And also it made me think about the coincidence of the ideas in the UK - Predicting History and Germany's 'archaeology of the present' idea, with such different realisations. And how art is exactly that, unique answers to universal questions.
Ruin,
German pavilion
Venice has its own pavilion in the Giardini complex, and Italy has its own in the Arsenale. The Venetian pavilion was, as usual, visually innovative and pleasing. This year, we enter into a space, and we seem to be underwater. We hear distant and muffled piano sounds while hanging above us, like they're floating are disassembled piano parts. As we are moving through the space, the piano parts get closer, and we arrive at the complete piano on the ground with a clear sound coming from it. In the second part of the expo, pavilion curators asked 700 Venetian citizens to bring a personal item and tell their personal story about Venice. So, we are walking among glass boxes like in an archaeological museum, where different objects have a short story usually related to a particular life memory. Touching and time-consuming in the best way, this exhibition is one of those after which you need to sit down, have another coffee and write a couple of thoughts so they don't escape you.
Note Persistenti
Venitian pavilion
Australia had the strongest visuals for me, as a long curved canvas wall was painted abstractly with colours on the blue and purple spectrum, within which you can find, here and there, some face-like shapes. Then the lights behind the canvas go on and move in different directions, while colours become stronger and livelier, the human shapes disappear, and it leaves you wondering, what is real and what is imaginary. Of course, poor Michael, with his challenged colour recognition, couldn't really participate in any of that. There is much more content and context in the Australian exhibition, of course. There is also a historical first - this artist represents their country, but is also present in the curator's international exhibition, as she wanted to save him when Australian politicians tried to ban his representation at the Biennale.
Conference of One's Self,
Australian pavilion
Qatar made a beautiful tent-like open structure as their pavilion for the first time in Giardini (the rumour has it that they paid the Venice local government budget 50 million euros for the permit), providing a space to shelter from the sun, to play video works, have concerts and discussions, which is exactly what it has been used for since the beginning of the Biennale. There is also a thought-provoking sculpture, an oversized water canister with the inscription "Lovely Gift from Blessed Land,
Untitled (A Gathering of Remarkable People),
Qatar pavilion
Special case: Austria - considering this artist's previous work (self-hurting, live intercourses, and such), the Biennale visitors are mercifully spared, but her method and message are no less apologetic - the bells for the end of the world toll, and to get us all to listen, she climbs the bell naked and hanging upside down, strikes the bell. She is evoking the Bosch painting The Last Judgement (displayed in the Bruges museum). We did take pictures from far away, but didn't enter the pavilion and watch other moments of the exhibition; it felt enough to read about them, which you can do too with the link provided at the end.
Seaworld Venice,
Austria pavilion
And this is a photo I took of a lady checking her phone in the Finland pavilion. Her curly hair at the top corresponded beautifully to a curled-up huge hair-like wig structure, one of 5; under each, there is a different wind blowing from below, creating different effects. She didn't seem impressed.
Aeolian Suite,
Finland pavilion
The Spanish pavilion was also interesting, with thousands of vintage postcards wallpapered on all the walls. People seemed interested and spent a lot of time looking. Serbia's concept was similar, but 'wallpaper' was made from the old original photos taken of people in the Balkans. Greece also had an interesting and engaging pavilion that felt like a Sado-Mazo gay club, playing Frankie Goes to Hollywood on repeat, and with plenty of interesting mirrors where we and many others took selfies. Lots of comfy places to sit and lounge, only to realise when you sit down that he is portraying all the people lost to aids or brutality and discrimination in Greece in the 80s and 90s.
To end with an example of how art and reality can collide, here is the story of the US pavilion.
We decided to skip visiting it this year, since the US administration ignored the long-established selection process. The person in charge of it is a Florida jewellery shop owner who is a friend of somebody in the US State Department who can sign the budget for the Venice Biennale. Because of this and thousands of other much stronger reasons, the US pavilion was largely ignored by the visitors. Apparently, a couple of days ago, the situation changed. People are gathering in front of it and staying there for some time. Why? Well, we should not underestimate the Florida jewellery shop owner; she spread golden rice-sized nuggets into the gravel in front of the pavilion. It only took a couple of influencers to show their hands full of gold, and voila, visitors are there now, and they are digging through dust and stones.
For more:
UK Artist about the exposition - 4 min video
