Pavlo Makov, Night (Colour Insert from Abracadabra), 2019–2020

The Venice Biennale opens today. We are thinking, in particular, of Ukrainian artist Pavlo Makov, whose installation Fountain of Exhaustion has now arrived safely from Kyiv, following a difficult evacuation, while the artist himself remains in Ukraine. The sculpture, made up of 78 bronze funnels arranged in a pyramid, will take centre stage in the country’s national pavilion, where water will be poured onto the uppermost funnel and left to drip down. “Only a few drops reach the bottom,” explained the pavilion’s curators, “symbolizing exhaustion on a personal and global level”. This expressive pencil drawing, meanwhile, is part of a recent series by the multi-faceted artist “exploring the dynamic of manmade objects and nature”.