Sergeant S.N.A.F.U.

"Situation Normal, All Fucked Up"

INFORMATION IS OFFICIALLY A WEAPON

The Venice Biennale 2026

"We now live in a post truth society.

Information is weaponised everywhere.

To be powerful you need the strongest information army.

Using a microphone can kill but can also kill you.

It’s an instrument of warfare.

This war, this crisis is global.

We are not going to overcome misinformation, distortion and propaganda.

The best we can do is manage it.

We have the tools: we have our reason and we have our emotions.

And to fight back we have our humanity."

Anne de Carbuccia

SITUATION NORMAL, ALL FUCKED UP

Meet Sergeant S.N.A.F.U, a stylized soldier whose weapon is actually a microphone. The image is precise: language has become artillery and broadcast its ammunition at scale. The historic military acronym S.N.A.F.U. (“Situation Normal: All Fucked Up”) sarcastically defines a chaotic situation that has become the accepted norm. In today’s information battlefield it frames a condition in which disorder is no longer exceptional but operational. Misinformation, propaganda and incitement move like weapons through global networks.

THE WAR ON TRUTH

The S.N.A.F.U. soldiers are the sentinels of a new kind of warfare, one without front lines, where the terrain is perception itself and the casualties are truth and collective understanding. With this series, Anne gives physical form to an otherwise intangible conflict: the fake news war where information is officially a weapon.

THE SOLDIERS

Rendered in chrome, the soldiers act as both armor and mirror, their reflective surfaces capturing and implicating the viewer. Disorienting, reflective and seductive, they echo the polished surfaces of media systems designed to capture and dominate attention. The soldiers evoke immediately legible toy figures. This familiarity sharpens the tension: they are at once toys and instruments of control, mixing innocence and militarization. They also reveal an invisible war driven by algorithms that amplify division and escalate content.

TECHNIQUE

The Sergeant S.N.A.F.U. series consists of four distinct models produced using largeformat 3D printing (FDM). They are available in Green, Blue, Red, Silver and Gold. The chrome finish is the result of a multiple-layered handcrafted process. Each sculpture bears the inscription "S.N.A.F.U.," with some models also incorporating references to military instruments.

MAKING OF

3D MODELING: PIETRO TRANCHELLINI

MANUFACTURING: R3DIRECT