Announcement:
Jakub Jansa and Selmeci Kocka Jusko,
to represent the Czech and Slovak Pavilion
at the 2026 Venice Biennale
- Aug 2025
The Czech and Slovak Pavilion at The 61st Venice Biennale will mark the 100th anniversary of its opening. To commemorate this milestone, the presentation will bring together artists Jakub Jansa, Selmeci Kocka Jusko working with curator Peter Sit and commissioner Michal Novotný to realise the project The Silence of the Mole.
The Silence of the Mole offers a clear and accessible narrative within an international context, engaging deeply with the pavilion’s architecture and the idea of a shared Czech–Slovak presentation. The project intertwines historical reflection on the pavilion with a critical perspective on how Czech and Slovak identities have been represented at the Biennale. At once straightforward and multilayered, it draws on cultural references from both countries to explore the ways in which identity has been staged over time. Its interdisciplinary format—bringing together film, performance, and installation—creates a cohesive whole that unites the contributions of all participating artists.
At the center of The Silence of the Mole is Mr. K., an exhausted actor who has played the character of the Little Mole for decades. Once an embodiment of childhood innocence and poetic silence, the Mole has become a mascot of cultural diplomacy, an object of licensing, and a nostalgic myth. Sent to represent the Czech and Slovak Republics as a diplomatically acceptable, politically neutral figure, the Mole also embodies reproach, silence, and a confused identity. The project explores Czech–Slovak coexistence, collective memory, and ecological fatigue, asking what happens to imagination when it becomes a public mask.
