She Knew She/It/They Would Melt

Simone Post’s work opens a different, magical realm of reality that makes room for naive, childlike joy. The artist brings the historic interior of a palazzo to life by creating candy replicas of chandeliers and objects from throughout the house. She places images of her family, made from lollipops, in decorative frames. The installation, combining elements of domestic comfort, historic interiors, and countless colorful sweets, becomes a kind of mirage. Is this a memory of something that never was? A dream of the impossible? Or perhaps a hallucination?

Using candy, Post gives the antiques a carefree quality inherent in the naïve joy of childhood. However, this material, which melts so easily, highlights the fragile, fleeting nature of this state. Can we be so carefree in the world around us?

The PinchukArtCentre and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation present Still Joy – From Ukraine into the World is an official Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition-La Biennale di Venezia.

Still Joy-From Ukraine into the World brings together leading international and Ukrainian artists reflecting on the concept of joy as both a vital force and a radical act of humanity. The exhibition’s starting point and disruptive agent are the testimonies collected by the Ukrainian story-gatherer Hlib Stryzhko, a marine, veteran, and former prisoner of war. These stories are anchoring fragments of reality within the exhibition.

Participating artists include: Kateryna Aliinyk, Piotr Armianovski, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Julian Charrière, Tacita Dean, Ryan Gander, Gabrielle Goliath, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Alevtina Kakhidze, Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk, Pavlo Kovach. Bogdana Kosmina, Katya Lesiv, Kateryna Lysovenko, Simone Post, Ashfika Rahman, Daniel Turner, Álvaro Urbano, Lesia Vasyichenko, Oleksiy Sai & Yury Gruzinov.

DesignSimone PostYear2026PhotographyTitia HahneThanks toPinchuk Art Foundation