Sergey Bratkov is internationally recognized for his uncompromising exploration of power, vulnerability, gender, labor, and post-Soviet realities.

Performance duration: 8 minutes. The installation remains active between performances, preserving an atmosphere of heat, repetition, and suspended action.

Sergey Bratkov is internationally recognized for his uncompromising artistic practice, which openly addresses the issues of contemporary society. His works have been widely exhibited and are held in major museums and private collections worldwide.

The performance explores irreversibility — a gesture that asserts the impossibility of returning to the past.

Through the destruction of fabric, its fragility becomes perceptible. A single gesture is enough to transform the material permanently. This sequence demonstrates the experience of decision-making and its consequences, turning instability into a constant of contemporary society.

The embodied experience of the performance Iron Drive expands the discourse on fragility within the framework of the CityX program.

During the Venice Biennale 2026, CityX Foundation presents a new performance and installation by Sergey Bratkov — one of the most influential Ukrainian multidisciplinary artists, whose works bring to the surface the cracks within contemporary reality.

"Iron Drive" reflects on the instability of the present and on the attempt to preserve intentions and values through an act of destruction. The object becomes clothing — a fabric of collective memory, a thread woven into the life of a society shaped by violence. The repetitive action accumulates a point of no return, calling for responsibility, courage, and movement toward goals despite challenges.

Working within Fragile Art, the performance translates urgent social issues into a sensory experience.

Final Public Performance

19:20

Performance II

Welcome Speech (CityX Foundation)

Performance I

Doors Open / Performance & Installation Access

16:00