Betye Saar's Birthday Present

Nude and precarious performances at the Venice Biennale include a performer dangling upside-down from a giant bell, clanging it on the hour, and another rolling down bleachers while wearing a crumbling plaster skirt. Other works involve porta-potties designed for performers to urinate into a system that feeds a massive tank where a performer is submerged, with urine filtered. Despite cancellations, boycotts, and leadership upheaval, the Austrian and Belgian pavilions in the Giardini present experimental performances that require sustained attention. In New York, assemblage artist Betye Saar prepares to donate her collection of Black dolls to the New York Historical as she turns 100.

"A nude performer dangling upside-down from a giant bell, clanging it on the hour. Another rolling perilously down bleachers, wearing a crumbling plaster skirt. And that isn't even to mention the porta-potties, which you're supposed to pee in to feed a massive tank in which a performer is submerged (the urine is filtered)."

"These are scenes you might witness at this year's Venice Biennale. Performance is one of the strongest veins, and today, critic Eurídice Arratia walks you through Florentina Holzinger and Miet Warlop's displays at the Austrian and Belgian pavilions."

"Unless you were attending a silent retreat the past few weeks, you already know that no other Venice Biennale in recent history has gotten off to a more fraught start than this year's. In May 2025, its artistic director, Koyo Kouoh, passed away. Then there were canceled pavilions, boycotts protesting Israel and Russia's participation, and the jury's resignation."

"On this side of the Atlantic, meet iconic assemblage artist Betye Saar's "family" - a collection of Black dolls she's promising to the New York Historical on the occasion of turning 100(!). Of course, Saar would be the one giving a gift on her own birthday."

Read at Hyperallergic