Venice performance art misrepresented as anti-Muslim violence in India
- Published on May 21, 2026 at 11:03
- 2 min read
- By Rasheek MUJIB, AFP Bangladesh
Reports of sectarian violence following state elections in India's West Bengal continue to trigger falsehoods online, including a miscaptioned video supposedly depicting a Muslim man tortured by Hindus. The clip depicts a performance art exhibition in Venice that aimed to draw attention to the impacts of climate change.
"Look at how Hindu extremists in India have hung a Muslim brother from a bell and are ringing him inside," reads the Bengali-language caption of a Facebook reel shared on May 12, 2026.
The 35-second video, which was viewed more than 70,000 times, shows a person hanging upside down from a giant bell and moving sideways, while a crowd watches. Superimposed Bengali text on the video reads: "Nationwide tension! Big news!"
The clip also surfaced in Facebook and YouTube posts from users in Muslim-majority Bangladesh -- which borders West Bengal -- after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept elections in the state (archived link).
It was the Hindu nationalist party's first electoral victory in the state of more than 100 million, which has a significant Muslim population.
At least five people have been killed, including a close aide of West Bengal's BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari, in post-election violence since results were announced on May 4 (archived link).
Indian news website Maktoob Media reported that Muslims and their property were some of those targeted in the attacks (archived link).
The vote has sparked a torrent of misinformation debunked by AFP, with the circulating video similarly misrepresented.
A reverse image search on Google using the clip's keyframes led to the same footage published on the Instagram page of Portuguese news site 24horaspt on May 11, 2026 (archived link).
The video's Portuguese caption says it shows the "Seaworld Venice" performance by Austrian artist Florentina Holzinger during the prestigious Venice Biennale art festival.
Keyword searches surfaced multiple news reports about the performance, which aimed to draw attention to the impacts of climate change and rising sea levels on the Italian city of Venice (archived here and here).
AFP also published corresponding pictures taken by photographer Marco Bertorello on May 5, 2026.
AFP reached out to Florentina Holzinger for comment, but a response was not forthcoming.
More of our reporting on West Bengal election misinformation can be found here.
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