The 2026 Venice Biennale has once again proven to be a hotbed of provocative and thought-provoking art, with installations ranging from naked bell-ringers to banned opera singers and even a nesting gull that stole the show.
Florentina Holzinger's Skinny Dippers
Florentina Holzinger, known for her extreme performances, has outdone herself at the Austrian pavilion. The post-apocalyptic installation opened with her suspended upside down from the clappers of a large bell. Inside, visitors witnessed a woman riding a speedboat in circles, two others suspended at the top of a pole, and another sitting entirely submerged in a tank. None of the performers wore any clothes. Viewers were invited to use two toilets so that their urine could be purified and pumped into the tank. However, a sewage disaster in another section suggested the project might go dangerously awry. The transgressive nature of the work prompted four police officers to arrive during a viewing, asking what was happening. It became the talk of the town.
Sanya Kantarovsky's Eerie Seances
Sanya Kantarovsky, 44, a brilliant painter born in Moscow who emigrated to the US at age 10, presents his works in book-lined rooms with incredible Murano glass chandeliers. His paintings resemble stills from intense films, such as a naked man crouching in despair at the foot of a bed while a dog cheerfully sits on the pillow. The show culminates with an incredibly detailed sculpture of a boy's head in Murano glass. The atmosphere evokes a weird seance between the centuries.
Gabrielle Goliath's Hypnotic Mourners
Gabrielle Goliath was caught in controversy when the South African government banned her from appearing due to her piece Elegy, which was deemed a "highly divisive" tribute to a Palestinian poet. However, Goliath staged the work in partnership with London arts centre Ibraaz at the Chiesa di Sant'Antonin. The performance is hypnotic, with operatically trained female performers holding a single high note before being replaced by another singer. Created as a ritual of mourning for women killed in acts of sexualised or racialised violence, it was first conceived in 2015.
Carrie Schneider's Photographic Curls
In the main In Minor Keys show, several standouts include Akinbode Akinbiyi's street scenes suspended from the roof, the Chicano archive of Guadalupe Rosales, and Avi Mograbi's devastating directory of lost businesses and lives in Gaza. However, Carrie Schneider's 1.5km-long photographic curls, repeating a still from Chris Marker's 1962 film La Jetée, grab hold in the vast caverns of the Arsenale.
Lydia Ourahmane's Coin-Slot Art
British-Algerian artist Lydia Ourahmane has created a delicate sculptural show drawn entirely from Venice, which will be reabsorbed into the city when it ends. A beautiful new wooden pier will be handed to a local cooperative, a bead curtain of Murano glass was threaded by inmates of the Giudecca women's prison, and a contraption used in a church to illuminate a Bellini now switches on the show's lights when a euro coin is inserted. It is a touching, thoughtful piece.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan's Audio Detective Work
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, in his guise as a "private ear," investigates human rights abuses using sound as evidence. In 450XL: the Story of a Fugitive Sound, he gathers testimony from Serbian demonstrators dispersed by a sonic weapon during a peaceful, silent anti-government protest. The installation is beautifully set in the hospital's old music room, with 15 screens resembling protest placards.
Zhanna Kadyrova's Origami Deer
A huge concrete deer dangling from a crane on a flatbed truck near the Giardini entrance has traveled from Pokrovsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region. Originally made for a park in 2018, it was evacuated in 2024 on the fourth attempt. In the Ukrainian pavilion, touching footage shows the origami deer's journey, pausing in European cities and greeted by refugees from Pokrovsk, now under Russian military control.
Zhang Zhoujie's Digital Chairs
In the Chinese pavilion at the Arsenale, ten artists present off-the-wall proposals for merging human and artificial intelligence. Highlights include sculptured landscapes by Jiang Suxuan, a robot doing traditional calligraphy by Nie Shichang, and Chinese myth turned into a video game by Game Science. The exhibition ends with a lawn of "digital chairs" by Zhang Zhoujie, offering a much-needed rest.
The Gull
Outside the Polish pavilion, a nesting gull surrounded by a neat white fence drew crowds without nudity or hanging upside down. During the press preview, confusion reigned over whether it was an artwork or ornithological provocation. It was simply a bird that chose the Giardini as its nesting spot. A selfie with the artist is essential.
