Artist Dries Verhoeven has transformed the Dutch pavilion at the Venice Biennale into a bunker-like space by covering its iconic glass-and-steel structure with metal shutters. Inside, visitors experience a gradually darkening environment and a raw vocal performance by 13 rotating performers, intended to evoke desperation and confusion about contemporary global crises. The work critiques the modernist ideals of openness and optimism embodied by the pavilion, designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1953.
This intervention matters because it directly challenges the Venice Biennale’s role as a seemingly neutral, harmonious showcase of national pavilions, while global politics—including militarisation and conflicts involving Israel and Russia—intensify. Verhoeven’s project forces viewers to confront the disconnect between the Giardini’s nostalgic, safe atmosphere and the urgent realities of the present, making the pavilion a powerful symbol of Europe’s and the Global North’s increasing entrenchment.