The world’s most important art festival is imploding and Russia and Israel sit at the center of the crisis

By Barbie Latza Nadeau and Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

(CNN) — When the world’s most prestigious international art exhibition, the Venice Biennale, opens next week, it will do so amid a series of crises.

It will not receive its customary blessing from Italy’s minister of culture Alessandro Giuili who, along with a growing number of people and organizations, is furious over Russia’s return to the event during its war with Ukraine. More than 200 participating artists, curators and workers signed an open letter last month demanding the Venice Biennale exclude Israel’s pavilion over human rights abuses in Gaza. Another letter followed, which included the United States for its war in Iran. Most recently, after its five-person jury abruptly resigned on Thursday, the Biennale’s illustrious awards program will be replaced by two Visitors’ Prizes, with voting open to members of the public who attend the official exhibitions.

Now in its 61st year, the Biennale is a massive, global presentation of contemporary art from 99 nations, exhibited largely in permanent national pavilions dotted around Venice’s Giardini della Biennale. The Biennale typically offers a series of juried Gold and Silver Lions for both winning pavilions and individual participating artists. Jurors have resigned before, such as in 1968, whey they abandoned their positions in solidarity with widespread student protests.

However, the culture minister’s absence from the official opening ceremony will be a notable first in the history of the Biennale, which opens May 9. Instead of leading inaugural proceedings, Giuli announced he would be sending inspectors to the main venue to “gather information on the reopening of the Russian Pavilion,” a spokesperson told CNN.

While the Biennale has often had world politics play out among its pavilions, this year’s exhibit was explicitly positioned to reflect the current geopolitical landscape. Koyo Kouoh, who had been chosen as chief curator — the first African woman to hold the role — had put together the frameworks of the exhibition “In Minor Keys,” before being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, of which she died last year at age 57.

“In refusing the spectacle of horror, the time has come to listen to the minor keys, to tune in sotto voce to the whispers, to the lower frequencies; to find the oases, the islands, where the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded,” reads her original curatorial statement for “In Minor Keys.”

Instead, the Biennale Foundation, which runs the event, ignited controversy when it approved Russia’s participation in this year’s Biennale, saying in a statement that “no regulations have been violated and sanctions against the Russian Federation have been fully complied with, as is our duty.”

In addition to boycotting the Biennale, Giuli has also called for the resignation of Tamara Gregoretti, the culture ministry’s only representative on the foundation’s board, for not vetoing the move, saying she had failed to alert Italian government officials of Russia’s planned return and had “expressed support for its participation despite being fully aware of the international sensitivity surrounding the issue.”

Gregoretti told CNN she had no intention of resigning but would not comment further.

Internal revolt

The clash over Russia and Israel has exposed a divide between the Biennale’s board and members of the international jury, a rotating cast of art world figures which awards the fair’s top prizes. It is unclear why the jury’s members — chair Solange Farkas, Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma and Giovanna Zapperi — resigned, and following the Biennale’s announcement, a spokesperson declined to comment further.

Before ultimately resigning, the panel had issued a rare statement last week declaring they would not award artists from countries “whose leaders are currently charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.” This would have disqualified both Russia and Israel from receiving awards as both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu face arrest warrants from the court.

“As members of the jury, we also have a responsibility towards the historical role of the Biennale as a platform that connects art to the urgencies of its time,” the statement read. “At this edition of the Biennale, we wish to set out our intention—to express our commitment to the defense of human rights and to the spirit of Koyo Kouoh’s curatorial project.”

Russia last exhibited at the Biennale in 2020, at a pavilion in the heart of the Giardini that it has owned since 1914. In the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the curator and artists chosen to represent Russia that year pulled out in protest against their government’s actions. For the subsequent Biennale, in 2024, Russia did not participate, and instead loaned its pavilion to Bolivia.

When Russia applied for participation for 2026, with an exhibit titled “The Tree is Rooted in the Sky,” they were accepted by the Foundation president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco despite the war continuing unabated, and international sanctions in place on Russia.

Ukraine has loudly protested Russia’s inclusion in the Biennale. Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on organizers to reconsider the move. “The Biennale must not become a stage for whitewashing the war crimes that Russia commits daily against the Ukrainian people and our cultural heritage,” he said.

The European Commission has also condemned Russia’s inclusion and threatened to pull a $2 million funding grant for the Biennale as a whole if it did not reverse the decision by May 11. “Culture promotes and safeguards democratic values, fosters open dialogue, diversity and freedom of expression, and should never be used as a platform for propaganda,” the European Commission said in a statement, calling the foundation’s decision “not compatible with the EU’s collective response to Russia’s brutal aggression.”

Amid the growing controversy, Russia announced late last month that its pavilion would not be open to the public, though the media would be allowed to visit between May 6 to 8. The pavilion has become a site of protest over Russia’s brutal execution of the war in Ukraine.

During the last art Biennale, Israel’s participating artist Ruth Patir refused to open the show at the national Pavilion, saying the doors would remain shut until a hostage agreement and ceasefire deal in Gaza were reached. This year, the exhibit will be shown not in the Israeli Pavilion, in the Giardiani, but at a smaller nearby venue in Venice’s Arsenale district.

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