Biennale: live painting and Vietnam debut
Estonian artist Merike Estna will paint in public every day throughout the Venice Biennale exhibition, turning painting into a continuous live performance, and Vietnam will appear with its first‑ever national pavilion titled “Viet Nam: Art in the Global Flow.” (Both the live‑painting detail and Vietnam’s debut were reported in separate Biennale previews.) (news.artnet.com; artasiapacific.com)
At the 2026 Venice Biennale, Estonia’s pavilion will be made in front of visitors, while Vietnam will open its first national pavilion. (labiennale.org) (e-flux.com) (artasiapacific.com) La Biennale di Venezia says the 61st International Art Exhibition will run from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7, and 8. The main exhibition, titled *In Minor Keys*, is being carried out in line with the curatorial vision of Koyo Kouoh. (labiennale.org) Estonian artist Merike Estna will represent Estonia with *The House of Leaking Sky*, a project curated by Natalia Sielewicz. The Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art says Estna will paint in public view throughout the Biennale, building a single work across 22 canvases. (cca.ee) (e-flux.com) Reporting ahead of the opening described the work as one of the largest paintings likely to be produced during the exhibition. Estna’s pavilion is set in the former Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Castello, rather than in the Biennale’s central Giardini grounds. (loophole.art) Vietnam’s pavilion is titled *Viet Nam: Art in the Global Flow* and will be installed at the restored Ca’ Giustinian Faccanon palace in Venice. *ArtAsiaPacific* reported on April 15 that this will be the country’s first-ever national pavilion at the Venice Biennale. (artasiapacific.com) Vietnam’s debut adds a new national presentation to a Biennale that Vietnamese state media said will include 99 countries and territories. The pavilion has been presented as an independent venue for Vietnamese contemporary art rather than a collateral event folded into another program. (english.vtv.vn) (artrabbit.com) These two projects point to different ways countries use Venice: Estonia is turning the act of painting into the exhibition itself, and Vietnam is using the Biennale to establish a national platform it has not had there before. Both will open into the same six-month exhibition cycle in May. (e-flux.com) (artasiapacific.com) (labiennale.org) By the time visitors arrive in Venice in early May, one pavilion will already be changing day by day, and another will be appearing under its own flag for the first time. That makes the 2026 edition notable not just for what is shown, but for who gets to show it, and how. (e-flux.com) (artasiapacific.com)
