Overview
- At the Austrian Pavilion, a nude performer hangs inside a bronze bell and swings her body to ring it, with videos of the action spreading widely online.
- Seaworld Venice turns the pavilion into a water-filled environment that frames Venice as a future flood zone and uses spectacle to warn about rising seas.
- The installation runs like a dark theme park and a working waste loop, as visitors use on-site toilets whose contents are cleaned and cycled back into the tanks.
- Activists protested Russia’s return to the Biennale, with Femen and Pussy Riot staging topless demonstrations outside the Russian pavilion.
- Organizers kept the Russian pavilion closed to general visitors and the Biennale’s president defended including Russia, while the jury resigned and EU officials threatened funding.