On 7 May, Ukraine officially opened its National Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, presenting Zhanna Kadyrova’s project Security Guarantees.
The project is presented across two venues: the sculpture Origami Deer at the entrance to the Giardini and documentation and archival materials at the Arsenale. The project is curated by Kseniya Malykh and Leonid Marushchak.
During the presentation, Ukraine’s Minister of Culture Tetyana Berezhna, who also serves as the pavilion’s commissioner, noted that the pavilion’s title, Security Guarantees, serves as a reminder of international commitments that proved insufficient at the moment of greatest threat to Ukraine. She also recalled that the culture ministers of five countries had issued a joint statement in support of Ukraine and emphasised that the aggressor must not be rewarded with participation in the world’s most prestigious cultural events, including the Venice Biennale.
The project’s creator, Zhanna Kadyrova, spoke about the history of the sculpture that forms the centrepiece of the Ukrainian Pavilion: “When we created the sculpture in 2019, it had a different meaning. It was a decorative sculpture for a peaceful park. Now the reality is completely different: the park no longer exists, and Pokrovsk has been almost completely destroyed. Behind me, you can see a video installation documenting the sculpture’s journey from Pokrovsk to Venice. We travelled nearly 7,000 kilometres, and in every city where we stopped, we met people from Pokrovsk. There are many layers to this project, and one of them is about people”.
About the Security Guarantees project:
- The Ukrainian Pavilion addresses the issue of unfulfilled security guarantees under which Ukraine surrendered its nuclear arsenal in 1996.
- At the heart of the Ukrainian Pavilion’s project is Origami Deer. In 2019, the sculpture was installed in Yuvileynyy Park on the site of a dismantled Su-7, which had served as a carrier of nuclear weapons. The sculpture was cast onto a plinth and was not designed to be moved.
- In 2024, as the front line approached the town, the sculpture had to be evacuated. The operation was carried out by the NGO Museum Open for Renovation in collaboration with Zhanna Kadyrova, as well as a group of specialists and municipal workers from Pokrovsk. Historian and co-curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion Leonid Marushchak was also part of the initiative group. Documentation of the project Security Guarantees in Arsenale
