a provocative proposal for 2026 venice art biennale
Artist Andres Serrano has reportedly submitted a proposal to represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale with a site-specific installation centered on Donald Trump. If selected, the project will occupy the neoclassical U.S. Pavilion in Venice’s Giardini, where Serrano plans to build upon his ongoing archive-based artwork, The Game: All Things Trump.
Conceived as a spatial and conceptual extension of his earlier exhibitions, the proposal would incorporate hundreds of Trump-related artifacts ranging from commercial products to political ephemera collected by the artist over several years. Serrano has indicated that this expanded version of The Game would also feature his 2022 film Insurrection, with the installation tailored to the U.S. Pavilion’s Palladian structure, framing it as a ‘seat of power.’ The artist envisions the building itself as an architectural stand-in for the White House, exploring its symbolic potential through an object-based narrative.
Andres Serrano’s proposal for the U.S. Pavillon at the 2026 Venice Biennale | visualization courtesy the artist
andres serrano’s ‘the game’
Andres Serrano’s engagement with Trump iconography, which he hopes to display next year in Venice, began in 2019. It was at this time that he held a New York exhibition that displayed branded merchandise, news clippings, and collectible items, including a small chocolate favor given to guests of Donald and Melania’s wedding in 2005. These artifacts were arranged to critique and catalog the commodification of political identity. The project later traveled to venues in Europe and was published as a book, which Trump was photographed holding at Mar-a-Lago in August 2024.
For the Venice Art Biennale next year, the artist proposes to re-stage these objects within the Pavilion’s grand rooms. While The Game relies on dense visual cataloging, its presence in Venice would bring heighten the sense of populist spectacle.
populism and excess: an installation of ‘american values’
Andres Serrano’s past works, especially his irreverent 1987 portrait Immersion (Piss Christ), frequently sparks debate, and his treatment of Trump’s legacy has likewise courted controversy. His film Insurrection was pulled from a London screening over claims it was ‘too pro-Trump’ — a characterization the artist refutes. For Venice, it’s said that the installation aims to represent America through the figure who once claimed that role most explicitly.
The U.S. State Department, which oversees the country’s participation in the Biennale, is accepting submissions until July 30th and is expected to announce the selected artist on September 1st. With less than a year remaining before the Biennale’s May 2026 opening, it is still uncertain whether the United States will participate, as the selection process is overseen by the National Endowment for the Arts — an agency reportedly slated for elimination under Trump. See designboom’s coverage here.
artifacts from Andres Serrano’s The Game: All Things Trump
project info:
name: The Game: All Things Trump
artist: Andres Serrano
status: proposal
The post trump mausoleum imagined for venice biennale U.S. pavilion by artist andres serrano appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.