Belarusian street artist Mihas Mishuk decided to join the Venice Biennale — his signature graffiti figures, divers, have appeared across the city on the islands.
Mihas describes his action as an unofficial intervention of Belarusian street art into the Venetian forum.
“I came literally for a couple of days to put up the divers,” he told Reform.news, commenting on his appearance in Italy. “This is my personal ‘parallel programme’ during the Biennale, an attempt to make a statement outside institutions and return art directly to the urban space.”
The signature diver image created by the Belarusian street artist can now be seen in many countries around the world. Residents of Warsaw know it well. Now the divers have “arrived” in the famous city of art on the islands.
“In Venice, the divers are integrated into the urban landscape as temporary figures of people living between different countries, languages and identities,” Mihas recalled the concept behind his work. “These characters — people in protective shells — symbolise different human stories united by the experience of losing a home, emigration, vulnerability and the search for one’s place.”
Importantly, for Venice the artist created a special image: a diver together with the winged lion — the symbol of the city.
“I made a collaboration, so to speak, to be a little more understandable to the local audience,” he said.
There are now 36 graffiti works by Mihas Mishuk in Venice — both the “classic” divers and versions featuring the winged lion.
“I wanted to do more, but I ran out of energy,” the artist said, adding that he now plans to create a city map showing where his graffiti can be found.
Mihas did not manage to visit the Belarusian project at the Venice Biennale.
“I had a different goal,” the artist replied, referring to the specifics of his artistic practice. “But at night I walked past the Belarusian exhibition and, so to speak, sent my greetings to it.”
