British-Ethiopian artist Theo Eshetu is presenting a new installation, *The Garden of the Broken-Hearted* (2026), at the Venice Biennale. The work features a live olive tree mounted on a rotating dais, with a video of the tree projected onto itself, marking a shift from his decades-long practice of multi-screen video installations. Eshetu discusses the project's origins in conversations with the late Biennale curator Koyo Kouoh, framing the tree as a space for mourning, human consciousness, and elemental storytelling.
This inclusion matters because Eshetu, a veteran artist with works in Documenta 14 and major museums, is using the Biennale's global platform to push his practice into new material and conceptual territory—moving from representation to a living, care-based artwork. The piece also carries emotional weight as a tribute to Kouoh, whose vision shaped the exhibition, and reflects broader themes of loss, ecology, and the limits of media in contemporary art.