Ukraine prepares to participate in the 61st Venice Biennale

Ukraine has begun active preparations for participation in the 61st Venice Biennale, which will take place in 2026. Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture of Ukraine Tetiana Berezhna held an online meeting with the President of the Venice Biennale, Pietro Buttafuoco. Representatives of the Biennale Foundation, the curatorial team of the Ukrainian pavilion, and representatives of the Ministry of Culture joined the discussion.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the concept of Ukraine's national exhibition and possible options for its placement in open public spaces in Venice. Tetiana Berezhna thanked the Italian side for their support and flexibility in cooperation, emphasising that in the context of full-scale war, Ukraine's participation in the Biennale is an important element of cultural diplomacy and a way to convey the Ukrainian experience and the truth about the war to an international audience.

Special attention was paid to the technical and security aspects of the exhibition, in particular the installation of the sculpture and the possibility of displaying the work on a truck, symbolising the journey of the art object from eastern Ukraine to Venice. In the near future, the Ukrainian team will receive visualisations and technical proposals for final approval of the location.

Ukraine's national exhibition will be titled "Security Guarantees." The central object will be the concrete sculpture "Deer" from the "Origami" series by artist Zhanna Kadyrova, created in 2019 for Leontovych Park in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast. The work was installed on the site of a dismantled Soviet aircraft — as a symbol of the transition from a space of war to a space of cultural rethinking.

Venice Biennale, Ukraine, Ministry of Culture, Tetiana Berezhna, cultural diplomacy, Zhanna Kadyrova, "Security Guarantees"