From accusations of “whitewashing” to adults-only warnings, baby dolls and walls that appear to crawl with insects, the Venice Biennale’s national pavilions offered sharply different scenes on May 6 (local time).
Outside the Russia pavilion, demonstrators protested Russia’s participation. Nearby, visitors lined up to watch a nude performance.
“The Venice Biennale is whitewashing Russia’s war crimes.”
A group calling itself “Death in Venice” gathered in the morning outside the Russia pavilion, holding banners and arguing that Russia should be barred from taking part.
Simon Duda, a Polish activist with the group, described the protest as “quasi-artistic, quasi-plitic.” After asking a reporter if they were Chinese and hearing they were Korean, he said, smiling, “We like Korea very much. We are buying a lot of Korean tanks to respond to Russia.”
Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, described as a former Polish culture minister and now a member of the European Parliament, also joined the demonstration.
Across from the Russia pavilion, Denmark’s pavilion posted an adults-only notice. A sign at the entrance warned that the pavilion includes nude photos and videos and content suggesting sexual acts, adding that it may be sensitive for some visitors and recommending viewing only by adults.
The pavilion said it drew on research suggesting that watching VR pornography increases human sperm motility. It recruited porn actors and filmed videos at sites including a Danish sperm bank. The work frames declining sperm counts and falling birthrates not only as a biological crisis but as a sign of an era’s end, portraying a modern society it says is growing increasingly hollow in reproduction, relationships and labor.
Austria’s pavilion drew long lines after a nude performer, acting as a “giant bell clapper,” rang a bell in a performance that gained attention online. Artist and choreographer Florentina Holzinger presents it as an alarm about an approaching climate catastrophe and a great flood.
Japan’s pavilion resembled a shared nursery. About 200 baby dolls filled the space inside and out, and visitors held the dolls close while viewing the exhibition. With birthrates falling worldwide, queer artist Ei Arakawa-Nash, who had twins with a partner in 2024, uses a humorous but warm approach to confront viewers with the weight of cherished life and the shared courage, responsibility and love it can demand.
In a work titled “Dates I Want to Hand to My Twins,” the artist assigns dates he hopes his children will learn about as the dolls’ birthdays. The dates include historical moments tied to Japan’s violence during World War II.
Germany’s pavilion features a wall that appears to swarm with insects. Sung Tieu’s “Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable” recreates a prefabricated socialist apartment complex in East Berlin — a place the artist once lived and a housing area for foreign workers. While German law declares human dignity an inviolable right, the work uses the housing complex to highlight exclusion, deportation and racist violence directed at migrant communities.
A piece titled “They Have Eyes, But They See Not, They Have Ears, But They Hear Not” is made of 800 ladybug sculptures. Though they are insects, the effect can feel like a wall crawling with bugs.
The U.S. pavilion, organized under a direction emphasizing the Trump administration’s stated goals of promoting “American values” and showcasing “America’s exceptional ability,” was filled with works by sculptor Alma Allen. One American visitor, looking around the pavilion, offered a blunt review.
“It’s boring.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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