Nesting Seagull Becomes Unexpected Star of Venice Biennale
Organizers believe this is the first known instance of the bird nesting in such a prominent area of the exhibition grounds.
VENICE — A seagull nesting among the national pavilions of the Venice Biennale has become one of the exhibition’s most unexpected attractions. The bird has laid eggs outside Poland’s pavilion in the Giardini, prompting bemusement among visitors as photographs circulated online and in the art press.
According to the Biennale press office, organizers believe this is the first known instance of a seagull nesting in such a prominent area of the exhibition grounds. Officials said they only became aware of the situation after press coverage appeared and added that no formal guidance has been issued to visitors on how to interact with the bird or its nest. Polish pavilion organizers built a fence around the nest with a warning sign that reads “Attention! Bird Nest,” in both English and Italian.
The nest was already there when installation work on the Polish pavilion began during the week of April 20, Anna Kowalska, the pavilion’s art producer and coordinator of the Biennale office at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, told Hyperallergic. Staff first noticed two eggs, followed later by a third.
“The bird decided to settle here, and our responsibility was to disturb her as little as possible,” Kowalska said. “That’s why we decided to build a little fence and put the signs on it, so no one disturbs her.” They were “very worried for her” because a lot of people stopped by to look at the bird and take pictures
The unofficial “pet” of the Poland Pavilion still does not have a name. Venice seagull eggs typically take between three to four weeks to hatch.
Kowalska added that sensitivity to nature also resonates with the pavilion’s theme. “Liquid Tongues,” the audiovisual installation by Bogna Burska and Daniel Kotowski, features Choir in Motion (Chór w Ruchu) — made up of deaf and hearing participants — performing interpretations of whale communication codes and songs. The project is based on the story of biologist Roger Payne, who in the early 1960s saw how humans had desecrated the carcass of a whale that had washed up on Revere Beach, Massachusetts.
Marta Carraro, 43, from Genoa, said it was “curious” and “unexpected” to witness the juxtaposition of crowds, artworks, and a bird that had seemingly claimed its own place at the Biennale.
Seagulls are not always beloved in Venice, where they are notorious for snatching pizza slices and sandwiches from pedestrians’ hands. At the Biennale, however, the bird has acquired the aura of an accidental artwork. Elisabetta, a Venice resident who declined to give her last name, said she found it “cute” and “sensitive” that a fence had been built around the nest.
Like many other national pavilions participating in a historic strike today, May 8, the Polish exhibition was closed in the afternoon. Without naming countries, a sign appended to the massive doors read, “We are not indifferent to the decision to include aggressor states in this year’s edition of the Biennale.” They encouraged everybody “to support the Ukrainian Pavilion.”
“Whether nature is healing, I don’t know,” Luca Orlandi, a 44-year-old artist and art director from Verona, told Hyperallergic about the seagull's presence at the event. “But perhaps anthropization has gone too far; we are everywhere, and it is therefore inevitable that our systems continue to overlap with the ecosystem.”
