A dispute over Russia’s planned return to the Venice Biennale has intensified after the European Union threatened to withdraw funding from the exhibition.
The E.U. Commission said allowing a Russian pavilion could risk giving a cultural platform to figures connected to the Kremlin during its war on Ukraine, warning that the Biennale’s €2 million ($2.3 million) E.U. grant could be suspended. Russia’s decision to participate has sparked widespread backlash from artists, policymakers, and cultural institutions, while Biennale organizers have defended their stance as a commitment to artistic openness and dialogue.
Art should “never be used as a platform for propaganda,” the commission said in a statement announcing its position on March 10, adding that culture promotes and “safeguards democratic values” while fostering open dialogue, diversity, and freedom of expression. E.U. countries like Italy “must act in line with E.U. sanctions and avoid giving a platform to individuals who have actively supported or justified the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine.”
La Biennale declined to comment on the E.U. Commission’s statement.
Russia announced on March 4 that it would host a national pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, which opens May 5. The country has been absent for two editions: It withdrew its planned exhibition in 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, and it lent its pavilion to Bolivia in 2024.
This year, the nation plans to stage “The Tree is Rooted in the Sky,” an exhibition of more than 50 young musicians, poets, and philosophers from Russia and other countries. The pavilion’s commissioner since 2019 is Anastasia Karneeva, formerly head of Christie’s Moscow. Her father, Nikolay Volobuyev, is the current deputy chief executive of Rostec, a state-owned defense contractor.
Mounting Criticism
Russia’s return has drawn sharp criticism from prominent figures, including Italy’s culture minister Alessandro Giuli, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha, and the anarchic Russian art collective Pussy Riot, which hinted at protests during the Biennale’s May 6 preview in a post on social media.
Last week, La Biennale organizers said they “reject any form of censorship in culture and art” in a statement, adding that “the Biennale, like the city of Venice, continues to be a place of dialogue, openness, and artistic freedom.”
Their defense of Russia’s participation has been met with significant backlash. More than 7,000 artists, cultural leaders, academics, and policy makers have signed an open letter imploring the Biennale’s organizers “to reaffirm the ethical principles” of the institution. Participating artists at this year’s event from Latvia, which has its own fraught political history with Russia, have described the announcement as a “shock.”
Visitors stand outside Russia’s pavilion that has been attributed to Bolivia during the pre-opening of the Venice Biennale art show, on April 17, 2024 in Venice. Photo: GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP via Getty Images.
“The normalization of the presence of such a state within the international cultural sphere is unacceptable,” said Latvian artist duo Mareunrol’s in an email. “Russia has repeatedly used culture as a tool to manipulate perception and extend influence, often preceding acts of aggression.”
The political ramifications of the Biennale’s decision have also been profound. Ukraine’s foreign ministry has issued a statement warning against allowing the Biennale to become “a stage for whitewashing the war crimes that Russia commits daily.” These concerns were echoed by the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv, which said Russia has “weaponized art” in a statement.
An open letter, signed by 22 European ministers, has called on the Biennale to block Russia from using its platform to gain “international acceptance.” It noted, too, the pavilion’s “suspected links to individuals closely connected to Russia’s elite.”
A Change in Policy?
When Russia withdrew from the event in 2022, just days after its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, La Biennale released a statement on March 4 saying it “rejects any form of collaboration with those who […] have carried out or supported” an act of aggression like war, “and will therefore not accept the presence at any of its events of official delegations, institutions, or persons tied in any capacity to the Russian government.”
Yet, last week, the Biennale told ARTnews that “as a general premise [it] does not decide on national participation; countries themselves choose whether to take part.”
This policy shift follows the appointment of right-wing journalist Pietrangelo Buttafuoco as president of the Biennale in 2023, shortly after the election of Italy’s far-right leader Giorgia Meloni in 2022.
Nonetheless, the Biennale’s stance has raised eyebrows in Meloni’s cabinet, which has consistently reasserted its support for Kyiv.
Giuli, Italy’s culture minister and a close ally of Buttafuoco’s, revealed to Italian press that the government does not support Russia’s return to the Biennale. He added, however, that it is “obliged to respect” the “free, autonomous choice” of its organizers.