SINGAPORE – Amid political rows, last-minute resignations and artistic pageantry at a fraught Venice Biennale, Singaporean pioneer artist Amanda Heng proposes rest.

The 74-year-old invites visitors to Singapore’s 250 sq m seaview space at Venice’s Arsenale to sit on custom larch wood stairs and take in its musky scent or look across three grand windows in her work, titled A Pause. Their simple gestures unconsciously mirror the acts of rest depicted in her two-channel video work, which shows Venetians twirling a leaf or splayed on a couch, or Heng herself stretching in the park and reciting the Heart Sutra.

“The moment the visitor comes in, they are already performing in my space without knowing,” she tells The Straits Times.

Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo was at Arsenale’s Sale d’Armi building to open the pavilion on May 6. Singapore has participated in 12 Venice Biennales, presenting 20 artists since 2001. Mr Neo, who said he left the pavilion “renewed”, said of Heng’s work: “It’s an invitation for us to take a moment to reflect and to contemplate, a moment to slow down amidst our fast paced, always connected lives, a moment to appreciate the seemingly mundane around us so we can return with a better appreciation of the beauty of the world.”

Best known for exploring the power of everyday gestures like walking and peeling beansprouts in her performance works, Heng...