Rats of the skies? Nope, these pigeons get a makeover for the Venice Biennale

Gone are the days of merely having impressive canapes at a contemporary art event – the game has, of late, been significantly upped. A few years ago we saw frieze plant rotating trees around their annual fair which was impressive to say the least, but it’s fair to say that the Venice Biennale have really cracked it this year by commissioning artists Julian Charrierre and Julius Von Bismarcke to bring their painted pigeons to the beautiful city.

The lucky birds have been coloured using an extraordinary conveyor-belt mechanism that was first tested in Copenhagen. After landing in a box that looks a little like a CCTV camera, they are pushed through a system where they are (apparently) harmlessly spray-painted and then let out the other side in a strange airbrush metamorphosis.

Usually rather a nuisance at the Biennale, these former rats of the skies have been floating around the heads of unwitting artists and spectators down like birds of paradise and delighting pretty much everyone. Are you now drafting an email to the artists to get them to come and paint the pigeons in your town? Me too.