The Venice Art Biennale 'on fire': Russia and Israel shake up the grand showcase of contemporary art

VeniceAt the Venice Art Biennale, everything is quite for show: in each edition, almost a hundred countries from around the world proudly display their artists with the aim that, at least for a few days, politics does not overshadow the desire to shine internationally. But given the situation of international politics, with Russia, Israel, and the United States at war, this is still impossible. The 61st edition of the Biennale opened its doors to professionals this Tuesday and will open its doors to the public on Saturday, May 9th, with an edition on fire, and with the participation in the official section of Cuba, represented by Roberto Diago. So far, no signs of protest have been seen, but there is a call for a strike on Friday.

Iran's participation was planned, but on Monday afternoon, Iranian authorities issued a statement announcing that they could not proceed with the pavilion. Iran had announced its presence in Venice in February before the outbreak of the war, and had announced that the curator was Aydin Mahdizadeh Tehrani. Previously, on Thursday, April 30th, the jury had resigned en bloc due to the presence of the pavilions of Russia and Israel.

The path of this edition of the Venice Art Biennale began with a mourning: the artistic director, curator Koyo Kouoh, died prematurely at 57 years old in May last year victim of a fulminant cancer, about ten days before publicly presenting her project, titled In minor keys [In minor keys]. She was the first African woman in this role. Born in Cameroon and raised in Switzerland, Kouoh was known for feminist and Africa-focused projects. The management of the Venice Biennale foundation decided to move forward with her project with Kouoh's collaborators: Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira, Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter, and Rory Tsapayi.

Reviewing the mass resignation of the jury of the 61st Venice Art Biennale and the controversies in recent months, one can understand how politicians set the artistic agenda or, at least, try to launder their image in the great international showcase of contemporary art. The Art Biennale will open to the press and professionals this Tuesday, and everything indicates that protests over the presence of Russia and Israel will begin on the same day. The Latvian team has launched an international protest campaign titled Mort a Venècia, for which they have designed a logo consisting of the Biennale's logo turned into the Kremlin wall, which visitors and artists will wear as badges to show their public opposition to Russia's presence.

On the other hand, there will be a Procession of Poets in the Giardini in honor of Koyo Kouoh. Although it is an official event, it is expected that artists will use it as a platform to read manifestos against the institution's “neutrality” in the face of war crimes.

The jury resigns due to its commitment to human rights and the Koyo Kouoh project

The winners of the best national pavilion and the best artist will be decided by visitors and will be announced at the end of the biennale.

The jury for each edition of the Venice Art Biennale is usually chosen jointly by the artistic direction and the foundation. This year's jury, until Thursday, was composed of the Brazilian Solange Farkas, who was the president, the Australian Zoe Butt, the Spanish Elvira Dyangani Ose (former director of Macba), the American Marta Kuzma, and the Italian Giovanna Zapperi. Tensions with the foundation began when on April 23 they announced that they were excluding Israel and Russia from the votes because their leaders, Vladímir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, are "accused of crimes against humanity". In a statement, the five experts stated that in this edition of the Biennale they wanted to express their "firm commitment to the defense of human rights, following the line of Koyo Kouoh". In Kouoh's project, one can read the following: "By rejecting the spectacle of horror, the time has come to listen to the minor tones, to tune sotto voce towards the murmurs, towards the lower frequencies; to find the oases, the islands, where the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded".

Following the jury's resignation, the Biennale announced that the prizes will be decided by visitors and that the announcement of the winners will be postponed from May 9 to the end of the Biennale, on November 22. This is not an unprecedented event: in 2021 they had to take this measure due to the covid pandemic, and in 1968 the jury resigned in solidarity with student protests. In a statement, the direction of the Biennale warned that in this edition there will be no excluded countries, but rather it will be open again to "all national participations", following "the principle of inclusion and equal treatment of all participants".

Why is Russia returning in this edition?

The Russian government announces that its pavilion will only be open during professional days

Russia last participated in the Art Biennale in 2019. In the 2022 edition, the curators and artists resigned, and the pavilion remained empty. In 2024, Russia ceded its venue to Bolivia. This year's project will be titled The tree is rooted in the sky [The tree is rooted in the sky]. The curator will be Anastasiia Karneeva, sanctioned by Kyiv in April for being the daughter of the deputy general director of the Russian state industrial conglomerate Rostec.

tion of 2022, the curators and artists resigned, and the pavilion remained empty. In 2024, Russia ceded its venue to Bolivia. This year's project will be titled 

The tree is rooted in the sky [The tree is rooted in the sky]. The curator will be Anastasiia Karneeva, sanctioned by Kyiv in April for being the daughter of the deputy general director of the Russian state industrial conglomerate Rostec.

How is it that Russia is returning to Venice this year? Politically, Giorgia Meloni's government has expressed its support for Ukraine, but at the same time, it has tried to balance not completely breaking with Russia. In fact, Meloni caused a stir in January when she proposed creating the position of a "European special envoy" to negotiate with Moscow. In the cultural sphere, the Italian government renewed the presidency of the Biennale in October 2023 with the journalist and writer Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, as part of a wave to place conservative managers at the head of major museums, theaters, and awards. Buttafuoco is a controversial figure because in his youth he was a leader of the Fronte della Gioventù, the youth organization of the neo-fascist party Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI).

The Italian government distanced itself from the controversy over the announcement of Russia's return. The Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, announced that he would not attend the inauguration, and asked the representative of the Italian government on the foundation's board, Tamara Gregoretti, to resign for not having vetoed the invitation, despite her replying that she would not.

The Biennale's invitation to Russia was attributed to the foundation's "total autonomy" and against the government's orientation. The Biennale then defended its position, arguing that any country recognized by Italy can participate and that the institution "excludes any form of censorship of art and culture".

Russia yes, but with the risk of losing 2 million euros

The European Commission threatens to freeze aid for film producers allocated until 2028

The Biennale has bet heavily on Russia's participation. The European Commission threatened to withdraw a subsidy of 2 million euros. And the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Henna Virkkunen, and the European Commissioner for Culture, Glenn Micallef, strongly condemned the decision of the Biennale's management in a statement released on March 10. The European Commission gave the Biennale thirty days to rectify, but it has not backed down. There have been developments on the Russian side, which announced that the pavilion will only be open during the preliminary days reserved for professionals and journalists. That is to say, it will not be open to the general public, to avoid potential sabotage. The activities of these days will be recorded in a video that will be installed inside the pavilion and will be visible from the outside.

In 2024 the Israeli pavilion closedIn a press conference from Brussels, the Vice-President of the Commission, Henna Virkkunen, reiterated her "strong" condemnation of the Biennale's decision to allow Russia to participate in the art exhibition, whose inauguration will take place next Saturday, May 9, coinciding with the celebration of Europe Day. "The Biennale officially opens on Saturday. Ironically, Saturday is Europe Day, and Europe Day should be a day to celebrate peace, not an occasion for Russia to shine at the Biennale," Virkkunen lamented. That said, she threatened again to suspend the two-million-euro subsidy that the Commission maintains with the Venice Biennale, arguing that "European taxpayers' money must safeguard democratic values and diversity," principles that "are not respected in today's Russia."

The dispute over the space the Biennale reserves for Israel in the Arsenale

The Art Not Genocide Alliance collective demands their exclusion

The central exhibitions of the Venice Art and Architecture Biennales are spread across two large spaces: the central pavilion in the Giardini complex and the Arsenale, a former naval base converted into exhibition spaces. In the Arsenale, there are also exhibitions from some states that do not have their own pavilion in the Giardini. Israel does have one, but it is under construction this year, and the Biennale has reserved a space for them in the Arsenale. So the controversy over their presence in Venice is twofold. Israel's representative is the sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru with the installation Rose of nothingness  [The rose of nothingness], which includes a drip of agricultural irrigation. According to the artist himself, the water will accumulate on the floor of the room, forming a raft that for him is an image of the encounter between different communities. It is a new version of a work he presented in 2019 at the Art Basel fair, and which now takes on a different character within the historic walls.

The Israeli pavilion opened its doors this Tuesday without incidents or security guards at the entrance. Asked about how she is experiencing the controversy, Belu-Simion Fainaru remains calm. "I am not afraid," she tells ARA. "My desire and my task in this world is to bring people together through my work and my convictions," she adds. "And people who do not believe in it should consider that there are other possibilities. There are possibilities for dialogue, for shared experience, for encounter, and also for coexisting with opposing beliefs and ideas. But not everyone has to have the same beliefs as you. But you have to respect each other. It is very important to be at the Biennale and open this work to the public, of different nationalities and cultures, trying to unite people and not exclude them, which is what almost happened with my participation. And I believe this message should be assimilated.

In 2024 the Israeli pavilion closed, but it was a perverse closure: artist Ruth Patir and curators Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit surprisingly announced that they refused to open the pavilion until there was "a ceasefire in Gaza and an agreement to release the hostages." Despite everything, one of the exhibition's videos was visible through the glass.

Following Israel's inclusion, the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) collective sent a letter to the presidency and board of the Biennale, demanding Israel's exclusion from the 2026 edition and denouncing the lack of response to a previous petition. The letter, titled No to the Genocide Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, is a show of support for "fellow artists and cultural workers in Palestine" and with "the deep hope of ending the ongoing Zionist genocide and apartheid." They also recall that in 2024, "the outrage [...] was so strong that Israel's pavilion was forced to close." One of the central points is the denunciation of Palestinian cultural destruction: they affirm that Israeli violence also targets "art and culture": Israeli forces "kill, imprison, and persecute artists" and "razed museums, archives, cultural centers..." It concludes that "as long as Israel exists through genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid, it should not be represented," appealing for consistency with the institution's values. The letter has been signed by 178 artists participating in the Biennale, curators, and art world professionals. In the central exhibition, there will be a Palestinian artist, Mohammed Joha (Gaza, 1978), based in Marseille.

In the past, the Venice Biennale did take a stand against fascism and in favor of human rights: in 1974, the Biennale dedicated the entire edition to Chile under the slogan Freedom for Chile, transforming the event into a major platform to denounce the 1973 coup d'état and the repression of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. Another case was that of apartheid South Africa: between 1950 and 1960, it was marginalized, and in 1968 it was vetoed with an official ban based on United Nations resolution 2396 to suspend "exchanges with the racist regime." South Africa was not readmitted to the Biennale until apartheid was abolished in 1993.

Furthermore, ANGA, together with the Biennalocene union, has called for a strike on Friday, May 8, and a rally at 4:30 PM on Via Garibaldi, next to the Giardini. "The genocide has not ended. In Gaza, after the systematic destruction of infrastructure and essential services, Israel continues to exercise control and violence. In the West Bank, expropriation and settler violence are intensifying. The expansion of the conflict to the entire region, from Lebanon to Iran, further exacerbates an already devastating war. And yet, while the violence continues, the Biennale continues to offer space and legitimacy to the State of Israel. A clear double standard: international law is invoked for some, while for others it is suspended [...] We reject artwashing and cultural complicity with violence. At the same time, we denounce the material conditions of our sector: generalized precariousness, inadequate contracts, outsourcing, and lack of protections. The same economy that funds the war also erodes well-being and rights here," the statement says.

The culture wars of the United States

Republicans removed references to diversity and inclusion in the selection of their representative in Venice

Donald Trump's jolts to the international order also include cultural wars within the United States itself. The selection of the artist representing the USA at the Biennial has been marked by interventionism. Finally, the selected artist is the self-taught sculptor Alma Allen (Salt Lake City, 1970), who lives and works in Mexico. In the organization of the non-profit pavilion close to Trump, called American Arts Conservancy, Allen is the first white man to represent the United States since 2019. And in the selection process, just as Trump imposed on federal museums, references to diversity and inclusion were eliminated.