Project Team
Created and Developed by
Anna Kamyshan
Organized by Alyssa Stokvis-Hauer and Zev Moses,
Montreal Jewish Museum
Curated by Maria Veits and Yevgeniy Fiks,
Yiddishland Pavilion
Design and Engineering led by
Christopher Hornzee-Jones, Aerotrope
Calculations and Engineering Analysis
Tensys
Manufacturing
Àrea Cúbica
TAO-group Trans Atmospheric Operations
Infrastructure Contractor and Engineering
Servizi Tecnici S.r.l. and Rein S.r.l.
Local Management Team
Venice Art Factory and Vincenzo Casali
3d Modeling
Daniel Maga
Helium & Windows Production Management
Yuriy Klympush
Winch System
Wahlberg Motion Design
Software & TouchDesigner Development
Alex Mashurov
Communications
Italiens PR and Niceone Agency
Web and Graphic Design, Web Development
Semion Zlotnikov, Polina Nesanelis, Tsentsiper
Image
Dima Morozov
Assistance
Polina Ahababova
Anna Kamyshan
Organized by Alyssa Stokvis-Hauer and Zev Moses,
Montreal Jewish Museum
Curated by Maria Veits and Yevgeniy Fiks,
Yiddishland Pavilion
Design and Engineering led by
Christopher Hornzee-Jones, Aerotrope
Calculations and Engineering Analysis
Tensys
Manufacturing
Àrea Cúbica
TAO-group Trans Atmospheric Operations
Infrastructure Contractor and Engineering
Servizi Tecnici S.r.l. and Rein S.r.l.
Local Management Team
Venice Art Factory and Vincenzo Casali
3d Modeling
Daniel Maga
Helium & Windows Production Management
Yuriy Klympush
Winch System
Wahlberg Motion Design
Software & TouchDesigner Development
Alex Mashurov
Communications
Italiens PR and Niceone Agency
Web and Graphic Design, Web Development
Semion Zlotnikov, Polina Nesanelis, Tsentsiper
Image
Dima Morozov
Assistance
Polina Ahababova
July 16 – September 16, 2026
Arsenale Nord, Castello, Venice
Arsenale Nord, Castello, Venice
Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia
Nabatele.
A Synagogue
Over Venice
A Synagogue
Over Venice
Nabatele is a large-scale open-air installation by London-based artist and architect Anna Kamyshan. Set upon a massive rock floating in the air, a synagogue appears above the Venetian lagoon, exposed to atmospheric forces. Rather than holding land, it inhabits the airspace remaining responsive to its environment. The project evokes René Magritte’s The Castle of the Pyrenees, in which a giant stone levitates above turbulent waves, crowned by a castle - an image often read as hope without ground.
Similarly, Nabatele responds to current global uncertainties defined by conflicts and displacement, where refuge is provisional rather than secure. Its suspended condition - unrooted yet stable, hovering yet sustained by a steady inner glow reminiscent of the Ner Tamid, the eternal light of the synagogue - casts a gentle, consistent presence across the water and is intimately connected to the artist’s layered identity - a Ukrainian with Jewish and Russian heritage.
The Yiddish diminutive -ele in the title reintroduces a Jewish linguistic presence to nabat, a word that traverses entangled Slavic and Semitic languages and meanings, shifting its associations from warning and command into a quieter register. Nabatele is not a call to action, but a form of existence as continuance - a quiet, reconciling signal that remains there and holds what cannot yet be resolved.
The work references the lost wooden synagogues of Eastern European shtetls. Kamyshan reimagines this Jewish vernacular architecture, shaped by restriction, adaptation and continuity, as a metaphor for conflicted belonging and an existence held in balance. Central to the project is the concept of Yiddishland: a non-territorial cultural continuum preserved through language, memory, and transmission rather than land or sovereignty.
Nabatele also enters into dialogue with Venice’s history following the establishment of the Ghetto, when synagogues were no longer permitted at street level. Confined to the upper floors, they remained central to Jewish daily life, while becoming largely invisible within the city’s shared public space.
Neither monument nor memorial, Nabatele exists temporally above Venice. It does not seek permanence or make territorial claims. Responsive to its surroundings while resisting their volatility, it frames belonging as something tangible and remaining there without amplifying force.
Nabatele originated as one of five artistic proposals presented within the Yiddishland Pavilion programme in 2025, initially taking the form of a digital artwork. Anna Kamyshan conceived it with the intention of eventually bringing it into physical space. In 2026, the project materialised in Venice as a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia presented in collaboration with the Montreal Jewish Museum.
Similarly, Nabatele responds to current global uncertainties defined by conflicts and displacement, where refuge is provisional rather than secure. Its suspended condition - unrooted yet stable, hovering yet sustained by a steady inner glow reminiscent of the Ner Tamid, the eternal light of the synagogue - casts a gentle, consistent presence across the water and is intimately connected to the artist’s layered identity - a Ukrainian with Jewish and Russian heritage.
The Yiddish diminutive -ele in the title reintroduces a Jewish linguistic presence to nabat, a word that traverses entangled Slavic and Semitic languages and meanings, shifting its associations from warning and command into a quieter register. Nabatele is not a call to action, but a form of existence as continuance - a quiet, reconciling signal that remains there and holds what cannot yet be resolved.
The work references the lost wooden synagogues of Eastern European shtetls. Kamyshan reimagines this Jewish vernacular architecture, shaped by restriction, adaptation and continuity, as a metaphor for conflicted belonging and an existence held in balance. Central to the project is the concept of Yiddishland: a non-territorial cultural continuum preserved through language, memory, and transmission rather than land or sovereignty.
Nabatele also enters into dialogue with Venice’s history following the establishment of the Ghetto, when synagogues were no longer permitted at street level. Confined to the upper floors, they remained central to Jewish daily life, while becoming largely invisible within the city’s shared public space.
Neither monument nor memorial, Nabatele exists temporally above Venice. It does not seek permanence or make territorial claims. Responsive to its surroundings while resisting their volatility, it frames belonging as something tangible and remaining there without amplifying force.
Nabatele originated as one of five artistic proposals presented within the Yiddishland Pavilion programme in 2025, initially taking the form of a digital artwork. Anna Kamyshan conceived it with the intention of eventually bringing it into physical space. In 2026, the project materialised in Venice as a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia presented in collaboration with the Montreal Jewish Museum.
Anna Kamyshan
In collaboration with Montreal Jewish Museum
Curated by Maria Veits and Yevgeniy Fiks
Curated by Maria Veits and Yevgeniy Fiks
