A Letter from Venice: Before the Opening of the 61st Venice Biennale

On May 9, 2026, the 61st Venice Biennale officially opens to the public. The preview days have already begun.

The Instagram of the Belle Époque

The Venice Biennale was born in 1895, in a world without Instagram, Stories, or even radio as we know it today. People shared impressions, showed off their travels, and confirmed their presence at important events through postcards.

Together with cafés and salons, the postal service functioned as the social network of the Belle Époque.

Souvenir Stamps

The Biennale quickly became a “cultural Olympics of empires” and one of Europe’s defining artistic events. In 1909, for the 8th Venice Biennale, Italians created their own stamps to expand the exhibition’s presence across Europe.

These were not official postage stamps, but decorative poster stamps — also known as cinderella stamps — attached to envelopes and postcards alongside real postage.

The series was stunning: gold embossing, allegorical figures, ships, symbolic pavilions — the entire visual language of the Belle Époque compressed into a tiny piece of paper.

The stamp and poster designs were created by Adolfo De Carolis, one of the leading masters of Italian Art Nouveau, a Symbolist artist, graphic designer, and illustrator.

Imagine this scene: someone buys a postcard with a Biennale pavilion or poster, writes a few lines, places an official stamp of the Kingdom of Italy beside a decorative Biennale stamp, and sends it to Paris, Vienna, or Kyiv — perhaps to the Khanenko family.

Official Anniversary Stamps

Postwar Italy was poor and devastated. Yet in 1949, Poste Italiane issued a commemorative stamp series for the Biennale’s 50th anniversary — as if art itself could restore a sense of normalcy and reconnect Europe with the world before two catastrophic wars.

The stamps, issued in denominations of 5, 15, 20, and 50 lire, featured the Lion of Saint Mark, gondolas, and ships. Visually, they strongly echoed the decorative style of the Belle Époque.

The series was designed by Italian artist and engraver Giulio Cisari. Another commemorative issue followed in 1989, marking the Biennale’s centenary.

Ukraine and russia at the Biennale

Ukraine’s exhibition, “Security Guarantees,” exists both inside and outside the pavilion. Suspended above a truck rather than placed on a pedestal, Zhanna Kadyrova’s sculpture Origami Deer tells a story about contemporary Ukraine.

Zhanna Kadyrova and sculptor Denys Ruban created the work in Pokrovsk in 2019. They cast it in concrete on the pedestal where a Soviet Su-7 fighter jet once stood. In 2024, when the frontline came within just five kilometers of the city, the sculpture itself had to evacuate. After traveling across Europe, it now represents Ukraine in Venice.

Originally, the artist did not intend it this way. But today the displaced paper deer speaks about the Budapest Memorandum more eloquently than any destroyed Ukrainian fighter jet could.

Meanwhile, the russian pavilion continues operating despite protests from Ukraine and other countries, resignations from Biennale juries, criticism from artists, and EU sanctions. The commissioner of the Russian exhibition is Anastasia Karneeva, daughter of retired general Nikolai Volobuyev, a deputy director of RosTech, one of Russia’s largest defense corporations.

Escape in Venice

The first Ukrainian artist to participate in the Venice Biennale was sculptor Alexander Archipenko. In 1920 he exhibited in the Russian pavilion, built in 1914 with funding from Ukrainian entrepreneur and patron Bohdan Khanenko. Archipenko was given a separate hall for his solo exhibition, where he presented 48 works, including the Cubist sculpture Gondolier.

In 1924, avant-garde artist Alexandra Exter exhibited her painting Venice in the same pavilion — now as a representative of the Soviet Union. She also presented stage and costume designs, including sketches for the silent sci-fi film Aelita.Exter never returned to the “prison of nations.” Instead, she emigrated to Paris.

In 1928, one of the sensations of the Venice Biennale was «Life», a monumental triptych by Ukrainian artist Fedir Krychevsky. The three panels depicted the essential cycles of human existence: love, family, and the return of a son from war. Nearly a century later, the work still feels painfully contemporary.

P.S.

One final story. A friend of this blog’s author has a special affection for Alexandra Exter and for the postal service. Eight years ago, at Boryspil Airport — during a collaborative event with Ukrposhta — she mailed a postcard featuring Exter’s painting Bridge. Sèvres.

The recipient was a man she barely knew and did not expect much from.

They are still together.

Art, post, and love remain part of our lives.