Zhanna Kadyrova's concrete sculpture "The Origami Deer" (2019) is prominently displayed at the entrance to the Giardini during the 61st Venice Biennale, part of her project "Security Guarantees" in the Ukrainian Pavilion. Originally installed in Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine, the work was removed in 2024 as Russian forces advanced, then traveled through Vienna, Warsaw, Prague, Berlin, and Paris before reaching Venice—a journey mirroring the displacement of millions of Ukrainians. The sculpture, shaped like a deer and evoking folded paper, references the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Russia, the UK, and US guaranteed Ukraine's security in exchange for its nuclear disarmament—guarantees that proved worthless after Russia's invasions.
The work stands out at a Biennale where the war in Ukraine was largely invisible, despite Russia's brutal ongoing invasion and the Biennale's controversial decision to welcome Russia back. Kadyrova's project confronts the war head-on, making it one of the most consequential works in the exhibition. The sculpture's history as a beloved public artwork that became a displaced refugee object underscores the destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage and the human cost of the conflict, offering a powerful counterpoint to the Biennale's broader silence on the war.