There were two self-initiated New Zealand projects at the Biennale Arte 2007.

The book, Speculation was published by NZ Venice Project and JRP|Ringier, and featured work by 30 New Zealand artists selected by eight curators. More than 2000 copies of the book were distributed to vernissage attendees.

Aniwaniwa by Brett Graham and Rachael Rakena was selected for La Biennale di Venezia's Collateral Events section. This work melded sculptural forms with moving images and a haunting soundtrack. It was housed in an ancient salt warehouse in Dorsoduro, one of the six sestieri in Venice. Central to the work was the theme of submersion, as a metaphor for cultural loss.

Locally, Aniwaniwa refers to rapids at the narrowest point of the Waikato River by the village of Horahora, where Graham’s father was born and his grandfather worked at the Horahora power station. In 1947 the town was flooded to create a hydro-electric dam downstream and many historic sites significant to Graham’s hapu ‘Ngati Koroki’ were lost.