The 61st Venice Biennale has kicked off with a series of extraordinary and unforgettable moments, as captured by The Guardian's photographer David Levene. From naked jetskiers and giant bells to a celebrity seagull, the celebrated arts festival is pulling out all the stops this year.
Ukrainian Art and a Concrete Deer
One of the first sights greeting visitors at the Giardini site is Security Guarantees by Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova. This piece features a concrete sculpture dubbed the 'Origami Deer', which was evacuated from Pokrovsk in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast in 2024, before Russian forces took control of the city amid the ongoing conflict. The Biennale runs until 22 November, with participants from 99 countries staging public exhibitions.
Egyptian Sensory Experience
Inside the Egyptian pavilion, the Silence Pavilion: Between the Tangible and the Intangible invites visitors to engage with art through touch, smell, and sight. Created by artist Armen Agop, the installation encourages a multi-sensory exploration of the works on display.
Polish Pavilion: Deaf Choir and a Seagull
At the Polish pavilion, two large screens screen Liquid Tongues, a collaboration between Bogna Burska and deaf artist Daniel Kotowski. The film features a choir of hearing and deaf singers performing inside a Warsaw swimming pool. Outside, a seagull has become a minor celebrity after nesting near the pavilion. The bird laid two eggs before the installation began, with a third arriving later. Producer Anna Kowalska erected a small fence to protect the seagull from disturbances, and visitors now flock to take pictures of her.
Holy See Pavilion: Immersive Sound Installation
The Holy See pavilion, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers, is located in the magical Giardino Mistico near the Venezia Santa Lucia railway station. Working with Soundwalk Collective, they have created an immersive sound installation that incorporates works from composers, musicians, poets, and artists including Patti Smith, Jim Jarmusch, Brian Eno, and FKA twigs. Visitors wear headphones and slowly advance through the gardens as the sounds blend into one another.
Japanese Pavilion: Interactive Baby Dolls
At the Japanese pavilion, Ei Arakawa-Nash's Grass Babies, Moon Babies invites visitors to pick up and carry a baby doll through the spaces. They eventually arrive at a changing table where they can change the baby's nappy and expose a QR code that generates a short 'diaper poem'.
Austrian Pavilion: Dystopian Water Spectacle
Florentina Holzinger's installation at the Austrian pavilion has been the talk of the Biennale. Seaworld Venice features a host of naked performers and begins with a huge Venetian bell rung on the hour by a human performer dangling upside down within it. Visitors who progress further see a performer climb onto a jetski and travel around a tank of water, gradually gathering speed until waves crash over the sides, drenching front-row audience members. The installation draws on Holzinger's research into water and presents a dystopian vision of 'flooding caused by mankind' and a 'civilisation dissolved in piss'. Before exiting, visitors face a performer living 'within a tank sustained by body fluids contributed by the audience'.
Two-Headed Worms and Giant Bells
At the Palazzo Diedo, artist Holly Herndon presents Strange Rules alongside co-creator Mat Dryhurst and biology professor Michael Levin, who uses bio-electricity to create worms with two heads. Meanwhile, at Palazzo Manfrin, British artist Anish Kapoor exhibits his own work, including a giant bell-like form entitled At the Edge of the World. The sculpture's interior is painted with a deep, deadening black from which virtually no light escapes, causing disorientation if stared into for more than a few seconds.
British Pavilion: Himid and Stawarska
Lubaina Himid and her wife Magda Stawarska pose for a portrait inside the Great Britain pavilion. Stawarska provided the soundscape to accompany Himid's large paintings.
Other Highlights
- Lydia Ourahmane presents Rock Soup, a 'sculptural soup' comprising a gas bottle, gas ring, pot, broth, and the sounds and smells of boiling.
- Gabrielle Goliath's Elegy is displayed at the Chiesa di Sant'Antonin after the artist was prevented from representing South Africa by the country's culture minister.
- Miet Warlop's IT NEVER SSST represents Belgium with performers singing, dancing, and beating drums.
- Andreas Angelidakis' Escape Room at the Greek pavilion emerges 'directly from the instability of contemporary reality'.
- Oriol Vilanova's Los Restos transforms the Spanish pavilion into a pseudo-museum with thousands of postcards adorning the walls.
- Arthur Jafa's I Don't Care About Your Past, I Just Want Our Love to Last is on show at the Fondazione Prada.
- Alma Allen's Not Yet Titled is exhibited inside the US pavilion.
- Kenyan artist Kaloki Nyamai displays large-scale installation works at the Arsenale central exhibition venue.
- Ukrainian artist Daria Koltsova uses military uniforms donated by Ukrainian artists serving in the war, female soldiers, and members of the Azov Brigade, displayed around the Arsenale.
- Members of Pussy Riot protest outside the Russia pavilion against the country's inclusion in the Biennale.
All text and photography by David Levene, with special thanks to photographic assistant Flora Luna.
