The Venice Biennale: Canicula. Oppressive temperatures and societal suffocation

I’ve always associated videos at the Venice Biennale with boundless frustration. So many videos, so little time to watch them; even less patience for prolonged stays in airless, humid overcrowded dark rooms. Yet, when asked about what not to miss during the Biennale, my number one recommendation is Canicula, an exhibition with 8 new video installations commissioned and produced by Fondazione In Between Art Film. This show plays with light, soundproofing and the extraordinary architecture of a 16th-century church complex to give a different physical, auditory and spatial dimension to each artwork. This, however, would mean little to me if the videos themselves were not exceptionally good. Yuyan Wang, Boring Billion, 2026 in “Canicula”_Fondazione In Between Art Film at Complesso dell’Ospedaletto, Venice. Photo Marco Cappelletti Studio Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti, 24 Landscapes + A Vision, 2026 The translation for “canícula” in English is heatwave or, more evocatively, “dog days…