Pavilion of Ukraine presents Security Guarantees at 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia from May 9 to November 22, 2026.
The Ukrainian Pavilion’s project raises the issue of unfulfilled security guarantees, for which Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal in 1996, following the signing of the Budapest Memorandum two years earlier (The Budapest Memorandum, 1994, is a political agreement signed by Ukraine, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation, under which Ukraine joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a non-nuclear-weapon state in exchange for security assurances). The project also reflects on the fragility of peace and the resilience of the Ukrainian people.
At the centre of the project sits Zhanna Kadyrova‘s sculpture, The Origami Deer. In 2019, it was installed in Yuvileynyi (Jubilee) Park in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region — on the site of a dismantled Soviet nuclear-capable aircraft Su-7.
The sculpture was cast on a pedestal and was not designed for further transportation. However, in 2024, as the front line approached the city, Zhanna Kadyrova and the NGO Museum Open for Renovation, together with a group of specialists and municipal workers from Pokrovsk, evacuated it. Leonid Marushchak, a historian and co-curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion, was part of the initiative group.
Notably, the exhibition at the Biennale Arte 2026 in Venice will feature archival materials related to the Budapest Memorandum, as well as video documentation of the sculpture’s evacuation and its journey to Venice, created with the participation of Natalka Dyachenko, Pavel Sterec, and Max Màslo.
The project in Venice will be presented in two locations. The sculpture will be hung from a truck-mounted crane in the Giardini della Biennale. The suspended state of the sculpture symbolises the uncertainty familiar to Ukrainians today and serves as a metaphor for forced displacement. The second part of the exhibition will be presented directly in the Ukrainian Pavilion in the Arsenale.
Zhanna Kadyrova is a Ukrainian artist whose practice focuses on the theme of Russian aggression against Ukraine. The artist is also known for her sculptures, installations and projects that explore urban spaces. She is a laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in the field of visual arts (2025), winner of the first Her Art Prize, founded by Marie Claire France and Art Paris (2025), recipient of the PinchukArtCentre Prize (2013), and the Kazimir Malevich Prize (2012). She lives and works in Kyiv.
Security Guarantees
Commissioner: Tetyana Berezhna, Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian policy of Ukraine — Minister of Culture of Ukraine
Curators: Ksenia Malykh and Leonid Marushchak
Exhibitor: Zhanna Kadyrova
Venues: Entrance to the Giardini Della Biennale / Arsenale
Find more information on la Biennale di Venezia 2026 here.
