Dangling sculpture—‘evacuated’ from Russian frontline—will be focus of Ukraine's pavilion at Venice Biennale

Ukraine announced on 5 February 2026 that artist Zhanna Kadyrova will represent the country at the Venice Biennale with a pavilion titled "Security Guarantees," referencing the 1994 Budapest Memorandum signed by Ukraine, the UK, the US, and Russia. The pavilion will center on Kadyrova’s concrete sculpture "Origami Deer" (2019), originally installed in Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine and moved in 2024 as the Russian frontline approached. In Venice, the work is planned to be suspended from a crane on a truck along the lagoon embankment, with negotiations ongoing, as a metaphor for uncertainty and forced displacement. The Arsenale exhibition will also include Budapest Memorandum archival materials and a multi-channel video documenting the sculpture’s journey, with stops slated in Warsaw, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Brussels, and Paris before Venice.

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