Exercises in Radical Imagination: ‘Liquid Tongues’ by Bogna Burska & Daniel Kotowski at the 2026 Venice Biennale

7-Bogna-Burska-Daniel-Kotowski-Jezyki-z-wody-2026-wideo-dzieki-uprzejmosci-Zachety-Narodowej-Galerii-Sztuki.jpg, large, Still from 'Liquid Tongues' by Bogna Burska & Daniel Kotowski, video, 2026, photo: courtesy of the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

#photography & visual arts

The silence imposed on children, the songs of humpback whales, and the Deaf rebellion of the 1980s, which led to a revolution. By weaving these themes together in their audio-visual installation at the 2026 Venice Biennale, Bogna Burska and Daniel Kotowski propose a dream of a different world.

Upon entering the Polish Pavilion in Venice, it is easy to imagine you are underwater. On the screen opposite the door, you see a choir in a pool, singing in both spoken and sign language. The hair of the submerged figures floats freely, their hands wave gently, and bubbles of air escape from their lips. The sensation of being in water is enhanced by the music and sound waves, as well as by the video on the second screen – suspended high up and angled towards the ceiling. When the viewer looks up, they see a second video that narrates the story in relation to the one below.

The visual aspect of Liquid Tongues – the audio-video installation representing Poland at this year’s Venice Biennale – is barely mentioned by its creators, director and visual artist Bogna Burska and performer Daniel Kotowski, throughout our conversation. Rather than discussing what it will look like, they prefer to talk about the themes and motifs that come together in their project. It was great to listen to, but now, whilst transcribing the conversation, I find myself in a quandary. There are several themes related to Liquid Tongues, and they all seem equally important and interesting. I find it hard to decide where to begin.

So, I will start with the biggest one. Literally.

Whale songs & interspecies communication

Humpback whales are among the largest animals in the world. They dive to depths of 200–300 metres below the surface, are roughly the same size and weight as an articulated bus, and their resounding, spectacular songs carry for many kilometres underwater. Yet this is not what is most remarkable about them. Thanks to modern technology and the latest research, we know that humpback whales’ songs are not merely a ‘biological signal’ but a complex conversational system that the whales learn from one another, similar to how humans learn a language.

Ellen C. Garland, a researcher at the University of St Andrews in Scotland who has devoted her entire academic career to whale songs, has described how, in the underwater world of humpback whales, a new song can replace an old one, just as in the human world, one cultural trend supplants another. Sound experiments involving humpback whales, conducted in Alaska and the South Pacific by Garland and another researcher, Michelle Fournet, were featured in the documentary film Fathom, which became one of the inspirations for the Polish artists’ project in Venice.

Liquid Tongues is (‘among other things!’ – adds Burska) a fantasy about a supra-language. A thought experiment, an attempt to imagine what genuine interspecies communication might look like.

Unlike Bogna, I was not particularly fascinated by the creatures themselves, but I am interested in the subject of communication, and whale communication is perhaps the oldest form of complex communication known to us. It has been going on for millions of years, evolves over time, and research suggests that each whale probably has its own unique call. Human communication has so far been perceived as unique, but perhaps it is not so at all, says Kotowski.

In Liquid Tongues, the human interpretation of underwater songs, as well as so-called ‘communication calls’ – shorter sequences of sounds used by humpback whales for everyday communication – is performed by Chór w Ruchu (Choir in Motion), a community project created by hearing and Deaf people. Ewa Chomicka, a cultural anthropologist and facilitator, has been the choir’s curator since its formation; she is also co-curating the Venice project with Jola Woszczenko. In the promotional video, Chomicka said: ‘What interests me, and has always interested me, is dismantling or disarming dominant narratives. Looking at those places where one can amplify the less visible, less heard, perhaps marginalised, perhaps discriminated against, or perhaps simply weaker voices.’

The composer Aleksandra Gryka transcribed the whales’ melody into musical notation, whilst Daniel Kotowski created sign-language signs corresponding to the whales’ mode of communication. The choreography was created by Alicja Czyczel, and the cinematography (both underwater and on location) was handled by Magda Mosiewicz. Both curators of the project, Ewa Chomicka and Jola Woszczenko, also made a significant contribution to the artistic work.

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The creative team behind 'Liquid Tingues'; from the left: Ewa Chomicka, Bogna Burska, Jolanta Woszczenko, Daniel Kotowski, photo: Filip Preis / courtesy of Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

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Language, silence & the Deaf experience

The story of Burska and Kotowski’s Venetian project could just as easily begin with the play Rebellion of the Deaf (Bunt Głuchych), staged at Zachęta in 2018, which marked the start of the two artists’ collaboration. Burska was the director; Kotowski, who was then working as an educator and accessibility coordinator at Zachęta, became a language consultant at Burska’s request.

The original inspiration for Rebellion of the Deaf was the story of a Dutch artist, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, whom the director met during her research stay in The Hague.

At the orders of Dutch social services, her parents did not speak their native language to their three children, but, at the same time, they also did not speak Dutch to them, as they did not know it. In interactions with their children, they used around 50 forms of communication, mainly non-verbal. I was deeply moved by this story. I found myself reflecting on what causes such situations and how our good intentions and commitment often backfire on us.

And she continues: When I returned from the Netherlands, I knew I wanted to work on this story. I began looking for material that would relate to it, until eventually someone told me that the situation was very similar to that faced by most d/Deaf children. Nine out of ten such children have hearing parents. If the adults at home do not learn sign language, their contact with their own children will always be limited.

Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2026 – Image Gallery

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For decades, the language of the deaf was treated as an inferior means of communication. Deaf children were taught to use spoken rather than sign language, a policy stemming from the infamous Congress on the Education of the Deaf held in Milan in 1880. During a conference lasting only a few days, more than 150 educators from around the world, mainly hearing people, decided to ban the use of sign language in schools. The voices of a small group of Deaf teachers were ignored. Teachers were required to use only spoken language, with the intention of helping Deaf children learn lip-reading.

The ban on signing in schools changed everything. A system that had previously recognised the needs of d/Deaf people changed completely; it became dominated by the perspective of hearing people, and suddenly d/Deaf people had to ‘catch up’ with hearing people. A hierarchy was introduced, says Kotowski.

Modern research highlights the dramatic consequences of the Milan Congress’s decisions made at the end of the 19th century. If a child does not become fluent in their first language by the end of adolescence, they are unlikely to become fluent in any language in the future.

At the same time, the effectiveness of teaching spoken language to deaf children is very low. Research shows that six-year-old deaf children who have been taught only spoken language from the outset have a drastically smaller vocabulary than their hearing peers, and this gap is not bridged later in life, says Burska.

The decision of the Milan conference deprived entire generations of deaf people not only of sign language – it also severely restricted their access to language in general.

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Still from 'Liquid Tongues' by Bogna Burska & Daniel Kotowski, video, 2026, photo: courtesy of the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

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In Rebellion of the Deaf, that Dutch story is interwoven with several others. Only one of them has a positive outcome – and it is from that story that the play takes its title. It concerns the real-life student revolt at Gallaudet University in Washington in 1988. Although the university – the first in the world to be founded with d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in mind – already had a history stretching back over 120 years, it had never had a d/Deaf president. Following the next elections, despite the presence of two suitable deaf candidates, the presidency was once again awarded to a hearing person. The students shut down the campus and went on strike. After several days of widespread protest, the previously elected hearing president resigned, and the first Deaf president was appointed in her place. The protest became a significant part of the movement for d/Deaf rights and self-determination.

In the first production of Rebellion of the Deaf, staged in 2018, the Chór w Ruchu choir consisted entirely of hearing people. The performance was interpreted into sign language; the narration was delivered in spoken language, whilst the choir performed selected words in Polish Sign Language. These elements were introduced only at the final stage of rehearsals – it was no longer possible to invite Deaf people to join the choir and start the work virtually from scratch. The idea of a vocal-sign choir comprising both hearing and Deaf people was not realised until 2025. The performance was restaged at Zachęta, this time featuring the choir, which included 10 deaf performers. The Chór w Ruchu, comprising both spoken and sign language performers, also appears in Liquid Tongues.

Rethinking hierarchy & communication

What if we started with hierarchy? With the fact that, immersed in a hierarchical system, we often fail to notice the rules that govern it, provided, of course, that we are part of the majority? Liquid Tongues is also about this. It shows that the privileges which are invisible to us are often inaccessible to people with disabilities.

The homes we live in and the cities we inhabit can be equally functional or utterly non-functional for us. For years, my academic work has focused on how our physical environment and experiences shape our perception of reality, says Burska.

In a world designed by hearing people, deafness impedes functioning; yet one can imagine a situation in which the hierarchy is reversed. In 2024, Burska invited Kotowski and cinematographer Magda Mosiewicz to produce the video Oddychaj (Breathe), which was shown at the artist’s exhibition of the same title at the Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art, CSW in Gdańsk in 2025 (curated by Jola Woszczenko). In this work, by going underwater and utilising the principles of spoken and sign language, they explored the theme of hierarchy.

Underwater, spoken language ceases to be useful. Hearing people, who are privileged in everyday life, suddenly lose the ability to communicate freely, while Deaf people retain that ability, says Burska.

Hearing people usually do not realise that they live in a phonocentric reality, and only when conditions change do they realise how great a privilege this is, adds Kotowski.

The Venetian Liquid Tongues are an evolution of that Gdańsk project.

We are not trying to say which language system is better or worse; we have abandoned that way of thinking altogether, the performer explains. However, we wanted to reflect on the benefits of deafness, such as Deaf people being able to communicate in water or when separated by a thick pane of glass. The concept of Deaf Gain is very close to my heart; it shows how Deaf people enrich the world and influence it. Because deafness is not a disability, but a completely different perspective on storytelling and experience.

He explains that d/Deaf people, living in a spoken-word reality, often have to overcome certain barriers and seek solutions that may ultimately benefit hearing people as well. One such solution is subtitles in films – these were originally created specifically with Deaf people in mind. Kotowski also draws attention to another concept, known as Deaf Standard Time, which highlights that hearing and d/Deaf people perceive time differently.

In the Deaf community, time passes a little more slowly, he explains, if only because conversations in sign language take longer. Precision is more important than speed. Time measured by the pace of deaf people, therefore, entails a slightly different way of functioning and different values.

He himself was born deaf and draws on his experience in his artistic projects, but he is annoyed by the label of an ‘expert on deafness’:

It annoys me when I am referred to as a ‘Deaf artist’ rather than simply an artist. The fact that I am Deaf does not mean I can only talk about that experience, he says, comparing this to the experience of Black or queer artists, who, even if their art has nothing to do with those aspects of their identity, are still portrayed in this way.

Selected Works by Bogna Burska – Image Gallery

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Loss, recovery & shared worlds

Or in yet another way. The story of Liquid Tongues could also begin with a loss.

The humpback and sperm whales, whose communication fascinated Burska and Kotowski, were nearly lost to us. Decades of large-scale, unsustainable industrial whaling – continuing roughly until the 1960s – led to a critical situation, with many species facing extinction. In the 1970s, hunting of humpback whales (and other cetaceans) was banned, but it took decades for their populations to recover. It was not until the second decade of the 21st century that humpback whales were officially recognised as a species no longer at risk of extinction.

The process of reconstruction or recovery is always linked to a prior loss or the risk of loss, says Burska, whilst Kotowski adds that the theme of loss is readily linked to colonialism and discrimination:

The situation of humpback whales is very similar to what happened to the common sign language used by the indigenous peoples of North America, both hearing and deaf, he says.

This refers to a complex system of signs that, until almost the end of the 19th century, functioned as a kind of lingua franca in inter-tribal communication. It is estimated that as late as 1885, a century and a half ago, it was used by over 110,000 members of indigenous peoples, including the Cheyenne, Sioux and Kiowa. It was used in ceremonial and commercial contexts, as well as in everyday life, but as a result of European colonisation of the Americas, it almost completely disappeared. It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that attempts were made to revive it.

Our installation also includes a story I heard when I was in Greenland, says Burska, about an attempt to revive the indigenous music there. During the colonial era, Christian missionaries banned the old rituals and the playing of the quilaat drum. There were no recordings or musical scores, so the old music has not survived; nobody knows what the melodies sounded like. Today, these instruments are being rebuilt and played once more. But a Greenlandic friend told me that when they hear this music, they feel it is part of their identity and roots.

Liquid Tongues was selected to represent Poland at the 61st Venice Biennale from among nearly a hundred submissions. The jurors explained their choice as follows: ‘By exploring the sign language of the Deaf and the ways in which whales communicate, the project raises questions about the possibilities of building new relationships and sensibilities that transcend the boundaries between worlds otherwise inaccessible to one another. By experimenting with various forms of expression, the work broadens the horizons of the public imagination regarding the right to participate in a shared world.’ Artists from seemingly disparate strands weave a single narrative – a utopia. Yet when I ask them whether their video installation can be classified as socially engaged art or described as inclusive, they unanimously reject such labels.

It is true that the main theme of this year’s Biennale is to give marginalised people a voice and acknowledge their visibility, but we are taking a slightly different approach, says Kotowski. We are not interested in ‘giving something to someone’, but in showing that it is most interesting when we all give something to one another.

I Thought I Was Supposed to Keep Quiet: An Interview with Deaf Artist Daniel Kotowski

We did not want to include anyone, because the very act of doing so is a gesture of privilege: someone decides to include and embrace someone else. The word ‘inclusive’ makes me a bit wary; I hear a hierarchy in it, adds Burska. – The act of inclusion does not change the system; we are still dealing with a majority group and a minority group, the less privileged one. What we were keen to do was to acknowledge different, equally valid perspectives at the same time. I appreciate the magnitude of the work described as ‘inclusive’ or ‘engaging’, but our project is more about how our view of language and the structures it contains is changing.

She argues that their project is a vision of a different world, where we all learn from one another and live together, embracing our differences. She says:

It is an exercise called ‘What if’.

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Still from 'Liquid Tongues' by Bogna Burska & Daniel Kotowski, video, 2026, photo: courtesy of the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

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Liquid Tongues

09.05 – 22.11.2026

Polish Pavilion at the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Giardini della Biennale, Venice, Italy

Artists: Bogna Burska, Daniel Kotowski, and the Chór w Ruchu choir

Underwater and on location/outdoor photography: Magda Mosiewicz

Choreography: Alicja Czyczel

Curator of 'Chór w Ruchu': Ewa Chomicka

Curators of the Polish Pavilion: Ewa Chomicka & Jola Woszczenko

Commissioner: Agnieszka Pindera

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art is the supervisor of the Polish Pavilion and the organiser of exhibitions at the International Art Exhibition and the International Architecture Exhibition in Venice.

Translated from Polish by Agnieszka Mistur

Language English