War on velvet cushions: Artifacts from destroyed Ukrainian cities will be carried through Venice streets

The Venice Biennale has traditionally been one of the most prominent cultural events in the world. This year, however, interest in it has extended far beyond the professional community. The reason is the organizers' decision to allow Russia to take part in the official program of the 61st Biennale, which has sparked strong reactions in Italy and across Europe.

As early as the beginning of March, the ministers of culture and foreign affairs of 22 countries signed a joint letter calling for Russia to be excluded from the exhibition.

Italy's Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, said he would not attend the opening of the Biennale in protest against the presence of the Russian pavilion, while the European Union suspended a three-year EUR 2 million grant to the Biennale.

In addition, on April 30, the exhibition's international jury resigned amid the controversy surrounding the participation of Russia and Israel.

For its part, Ukraine has repeatedly urged the organizers to reconsider the decision and maintain the principled stance upheld in 2022-2024.

The decision to admit the Russian pavilion has inspired artists from different countries to stage a series of protests on the eve of and on the day of the Biennale's official opening on May 9.

One such initiative is the independent art project Reliquiae, which will present artifacts brought from Ukraine to Venice as testimonies of war.

Participants plan to present it on May 8 and 9 in the form of a secular procession that will move from Venice's railway station along traditional tourist routes. Each participant will carry a "relic" on a red velvet cushion – a soot-blackened fragment from the Bernardine monastery in Lviv damaged by a Russian drone, a piece of brick from a bombed residential building in Odesa, a bullet-riddled sign bearing the name of a Ukrainian city, or a symbolic artistic composition.

The project was initiated by Italian artist and designer Walter Espedito Trento.

"This idea emerged as a somewhat provocative gesture in response to the organizers' decision to reopen the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, arguing that 'culture is outside politics.' So we want to present our relics as the consequences of 'great Russian culture'," the artist told Ukrinform.

We spoke with Walter, as well as another participant in the project – Italian designer Paolo Coia – at the end of April, when the initiator of Reliquiae came to Ukraine to find ordinary objects that in Venice would be presented as symbolic relics of history and memory.

"WHEN SIGNOR BUTTAFUOCO OPENED THE BIENNALE TO THE RUSSIAN REGIME, IT FELT LIKE AN EXPLOSION INSIDE ME"

Artist, designer, and art director of the project Walter Espedito Trento lives and works in the town of Cisternino in the Apulia region of southern Italy. He runs the NUEVU studio and develops projects related to contemporary design and spatial installations.

Walter first came to Ukraine about 17 years ago as part of an art performance he staged across various European countries. Traveling with sourdough starter – natural yeast – he baked bread from local flour in different cities, demonstrating the shared roots of European peoples.

In his case, this idea took on a literal continuation: later, "on the yeast of that art project," he had a son in Italy with a Ukrainian artist from Lviv. Although the couple now lives separately, Ukraine has remained an important part of his life.

According to the artist, perceptions of Ukraine in Italy have changed significantly in recent years. In the past, many of his compatriots saw it as something barely visible within the large "red patch" used to mark the Soviet Union on maps. Walter himself, who at the time describes himself as a "radical leftist," associated Ukraine with poverty and backwardness.

Personal acquaintance with Ukrainians made him take a deeper interest in the country's history. During the Euromaidan events, he supported Ukrainians on social media and tried to explain their position to Italian audiences.

At the same time, he worked on artistic projects and maintained ties with Ukrainian artists, primarily from Lviv.

"Every time I came there, I felt a constant creative ferment – everything was dynamic, alive, vibrant. I felt like I was in Berlin and always wanted to be part of that process," he recalls.

Walter celebrated the New Year of 2022 in a village in the Lviv region and later returned to Italy. After February 24, he was among the first Italians who drove several minibuses to the border to evacuate the wives and children of his friends.

"Since then, I've been continuously involving Ukrainian artists in my projects in Apulia. I kept thinking I had to do something for Ukraine. I could have gone to the front to see my friends, but that felt like too 'journalistic' a gesture: I'd see them, they'd see me – and then what? But when Signor Buttafuoco [president of the Venice Biennale Pietrangelo Buttafuoco] opened the doors of the Biennale to the Russian regime, it felt like an explosion inside me: 'Oh really? Then I'll show you the true 'greatness' of Russian culture.' That's how the idea for the project Reliquiae was born," Walter says.

He reached out to Ukrainian artists – painters, writers, poets – inviting them to find objects that could become art relics, giving them full freedom of choice and relying on their sense of the historical moment.

At the time of our conversation, Walter had already received "relics" from Lviv, Kyiv, Bucha, Mykolaiv, Ternopil, and Cherkasy, and was expecting several more from Kharkiv and other cities.

During the procession through the streets of Venice, they will be carried by about ten participants, including Italian artists with their works and members of the Ukrainian community in Italy.

"RUSSIA HAS NO LIMITS, NOT EVEN IN CRUELTY"

Italian designer and artist Paolo Coia, who has lived in Ukraine for almost ten years, contributed to Reliquiae with a work incorporating shrapnel from Bucha.

Paolo also comes from the Apulia region, where, he says, Russian propaganda remains quite widespread. He has firsthand experience explaining the reality of the Russia-Ukraine war to Italian society, which is often not ready to confront its brutal truths directly.

He recalls that in 2022 he created a piece for an exhibition in Milan – a painting of Putin's face staring directly at the viewer, with fragments of missiles hanging from it.

"My idea was for visitors to look Putin in the eyes and touch the objects he uses to kill people. But no one did, and that shocked me. At that moment, I realized that in Italy, communication has to be different," Paolo says.

When Walter Espedito Trento invited him to join the project, Paolo decided to use shrapnel brought from Bucha – small steel flechettes with fins, just a few centimeters long. Thousands of these elements, which reach high speeds upon explosion, were used by Russian forces in munitions against civilians.

For his piece, Paolo used a rectangular base made of a soft material that can be pierced, painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. At the center is an image of a darkened heart symbolizing dying life. It is crossed by red ribbons fastened with shrapnel, as a metaphor for Russia's denial of the very value of human existence.

"When a person is struck by hundreds of such elements, they die a slow and painful death. This is a war crime. That's why I gave this work to Walter – to show that Russia has no limits, not even in cruelty," the artist explains.

"RELIQUIAE IS A CONTINUATION OF THE IDEA OF THE SHARED NATURE OF EUROPEAN PEOPLES"

To help viewers grasp the symbolism embedded in the Reliquiae project, Walter Espedito Trento has prepared stickers and bookmarks with QR codes linking to the initiative's website and is actively promoting it on social media. There is also discussion of placing QR codes directly on the participants' clothing, for example on their backs.

Both Walter and Paolo are convinced they will be able to convey the project's message to the public: some will ask questions, others will simply scan the code.

"Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come," the artists say with a smile.

As an illustration, Paolo recounts an experience from his own practice.

At an exhibition in Milan, he presented a work using shrapnel from Bucha similar to the one now featured in the project. His audience consisted of about 200 students, and when he tried to explain the idea, it became clear that it was difficult to grasp. At a certain point, two doctors in the audience spontaneously began explaining from a medical perspective how dangerous such shrapnel is and what effects it has on the human body.

"At first, I was a lone artist with one piece in front of two hundred young people, but thanks to those doctors I'm sure that 200 people left the exhibition understanding what is happening in Ukraine. So I was no longer alone," Paolo says.

After the Venice action, Walter plans to bring the Ukrainian "relics" to Cisternino, where they will be exhibited from May 30 to September 30 in the historic Church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli.

He also intends to launch a fundraising campaign within the local community to support the project. For now, it is partially funded through the Kickstarter platform, including raising money for printed materials and a catalogue.

Asked whether Italians are ready to step out of their comfort zone to understand the message of Reliquiae, Walter says he is doing his part.

"For me, life, art, and culture are almost inseparable," he says. "This project, like my journey across Europe, is a continuation of the idea of the shared nature of European peoples. As someone who has always held left-wing views, I see that Italian society is quite gentle and vulnerable to Russian propaganda. You can pretend that culture is outside politics, but I am convinced that there can be no politics without culture, and no culture without politics. And if you don't engage in politics, the day will come when politics engages with you."

According to Walter, Italians are drawn to situations that provoke discussion, so this year's Venice Biennale and the controversy around it will remain in the spotlight for a long time. In this context, he expects that the artistic response to the invitation extended to Russia – including his project Reliquiae – will also be highly visible.

Nadiia Yurchenko, Kyiv

Photos by Yevhen Kotenko