Most Serene Republics is a conceptual public art project by Edgar Heap of Birds, created for the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, that functions as a memorial to Sioux warriors and children who died in Europe while touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows in the late nineteenth century. Drawing on his broader practice – which uses language, history, and the visual authority of official signage to interrogate the tensions between non-Native historical narratives and Native memory – Heap of Birds employs Venice’s historic title, “the Most Serene Republic,” as an ironic frame through which to examine the formation of republics and nation-states through acts of aggression, displacement, and cultural replacement.

The project consisted of two temporary, text-based public installations placed throughout Venice in English, Italian, and Cheyenne, engaging Venetians, tourists, and the international art community within a city deeply shaped by imperial and colonial histories. By situating this memorial within the symbolic heart of a former imperial power, Heap of Birds transforms public space into a site of remembrance and critique, confronting viewers with suppressed histories of colonial exploitation, forced performance, and exile while asserting Indigenous presence, sovereignty, and historical accountability across national and continental boundaries.