Organizer rejected pressure to bar Israel and Russia

Venice Biennale previews marred by protests over Israeli, Russian presence

Bare-breasted activists demonstrate against Russia’s return to prestigious art festival for first time since Ukrainian invasion; pro-Palestinian protesters hold ‘No artwashing genocide’ banners outside Israel pavilion

VENICE (AFP) — Bare-breasted activists protested at the Venice Biennale on Wednesday, incensed over the return of Russia to the prestigious art festival for the first time since the Ukrainian war broke out more than four years ago.

Meanwhile, about one hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in front of Israel’s pavilion on Wednesday, holding up banners saying “No artwashing genocide.”

The world’s largest contemporary art exhibition, which takes place every two years in the Italian canal city, has been hit by resignations, boycotts and threats to cut funding over the including of Israel and Russia.

Wearing pink balaclavas, baring their breasts and setting off pink smoke bombs, Ukrainian feminist collective Femen and Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot demonstrated outside the Russian pavilion at the start of Wednesday’s press previews, which run through Friday. The exhibits will open to the public on Saturday.

“We are here to remind that the only Russian culture, the only Russian art today is blood,” Femen activist Inna Shevchenko told reporters.

“This pavilion stands on Ukrainian mass graves,” she said, adding that it was the first time the two groups had staged a joint protest.

Russia’s inclusion for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine sparked outrage from Italy’s government and the European Union, which threatened to cut two million euros ($2.3 million) in funding from the Biennale.

The Biennale jury last week resigned after saying they would not hand out awards to countries led by figures subject to arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The move aimed to isolate Israel and Russia, whose leaders Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin both face such charges.

But Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco refused to back down on his decision to include Russia and Israel, saying the festival is “a space of coexistence for the whole planet” without censorship.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the resignation of the “political jury,” accusing it of turning the event into a “spectacle of false, anti-Israeli political indoctrination.” Jerusalem has strenuously denied all accusations of war crimes and genocide, branding the charges as “antisemitic.”

Israeli artist Belu-Simion Fainaru, who is exhibiting at the Biennale, told the Judische Allgemeine newspaper he was “pleased” to hear that the jury had resigned. “The fact that, according to the jury’s decision, I shouldn’t participate in the competition because I’m a Jewish artist from Israel, struck me as discriminatory and also racist. I know the experience of discrimination and antisemitism from Romania, where I was born. Now I’m glad that I’ll be treated in Venice just like all the other artists.”

Standing in front of his installation rooted in the Kabbalah, he told the Associated Press: “I have to be seen as I am. I am an artist that wants to show my art, and I have the right to be evaluated.”

The Biennale, he said, should be “a place where you can feel safe to create and do whatever you believe in.”

The Russian pavilion will not be open to the public during the Biennale, which runs from May 9 to November 22.

Instead, musical performances for the exhibit — “the tree is rooted in the sky” — will be recorded during this week’s press previews and later projected on giant outdoor screens.

Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, who has defended Russia’s inclusion, told reporters that organizers “cannot boycott as an automatic response.”

“If the Biennale were to start selecting not works but affiliations, not visions but passports, it would cease to be what it has always been: the place where the world comes together, and all the more so when the world is torn apart,” he said.

Other countries involved in conflict are represented in Venice, including the United States and Israel, which attacked Iran in late February. Iran had been due to attend, but pulled out.

EU opposition

In 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the artists and curators in the Russian pavilion withdrew from the Biennale in protest, while organizers banned Russian government officials.

In 2024, Russia was not invited.

After Russia’s inclusion this year, a group of European culture and foreign ministers wrote to Buttafuoco condemning Moscow’s presence as “unacceptable” given the ongoing war.

The European Commission later said it intended to “suspend or terminate” its grant of two million euros over three years.

“Cultural events funded by European taxpayers’ money should safeguard democratic values, foster open dialogue, diversity and freedom of expression — values which are not respected in today’s Russia,” a spokesman said.

The EU last week wrote again to the Italian government to request clarification on the conditions under which the Russian delegation was being hosted, amid concerns of a breach of European sanctions on Moscow.

Award ceremony postponed

Russia’s ambassador to Italy, Aleksei Paramonov, said the live performances would not be allowed beyond the press previews because of the sanctions.

In a statement on Facebook, he said there was “truly something painful and unreasonable about the European Union’s obsession with targeting Russian culture and art with sanctions and restrictions of all kinds!”

Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli has from the outset expressed Rome’s opposition to Russia’s inclusion, and said he would not be going to Venice.

As a result of the jury’s resignation and the “exceptional nature of the ongoing international geopolitical situation,” organizers have postponed the award ceremony from May 9 to November 22, the last day of the exhibition.

The Biennale said it would hand out two awards, in which visitors can vote, one of which can be won by any national participant — including Russia.

This followed the “principle of inclusion and equal treatment,” it said in a statement.