Art and Loathing in La Biennale

This year’s Venice Biennale hasn’t even opened its doors and it’s already guaranteed to go down as one of the most politicised in its 131-year history. As if appointing a controversial right-wing journalist as its new director wasn't enough, the participation of Israel, Russia and the US, each waging its own global conflict, has stoked fierce debate about whether art transcends politics, or vice versa. 

Just as I was filing this article, the Biennale’s international jury quit, kicking up even more political dust. The move follows an earlier joint statement on 23 April by its five members saying that they would not judge the national pavilions of any countries currently charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. In other words, Russia and Israel.

‘As of 30 April 30, 2026, we, the international jury selected by Koyo Kouoh, artistic director of the 61st edition of La Biennale di Venezia In Minor Keys, have resigned,” said the jury,  which awards Venice’s coveted Gold and Silver Lions to the most impressive pavilions.. The Biennale reportedly still intends to rank the exhibitions but has postponed the ceremony from 9 May 9 to 22 November, its final day.

The news is the latest domino to topple as the fallout from the Biennale’s refusal to blacklist war-mongering states continues to reverberate. Earlier in April, the European Union (EU) pulled €2 million of funding, while various politicians, including Italy’s culture minister, have said they will boycott the opening. Several open letters condemning the inclusion of  Russia and Israel have been signed by scores of artists, curators and prominent artworld players.

‘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. It added that the Biennale’s refusal to ban Russia was ‘not compatible with the EU’s collective response to Russia’s brutal aggression’.

On top of this, a series of protests are being planned to sabotage the US, Russian and Israeli exhibitions. Feminist protest group Pussy Riot has revealed how it hopes to hijack the Russian Pavilion. Other demonstrations, I have been informed, are being planned in the shadows. Expect some level of chaos from ground, air and water – and beefed up security. 

Was the jury’s initial decision to deny Russia and Israel the chance to compete a half-hearted attempt to quell this dissent? Perhaps. But its subsequent quitting hints at resignation; it could be hard to see the art through the politics next week. Protestors are in their war rooms, plotting and mobilising as we speak.

At the 2022 edition, Russian artists Kirill Savchenkov and Alexandra Sukhareva, along with Lithuanian curator Raimundas Malašauskas, backed out from the Russian Pavilion before the opening, citing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. They called the war ‘politically and emotionally unbearable’, and said there was ‘no place for art’ amid the conflict.

For the same to happen this year, the 50 or so ‘musicians, poets, and philosophers,’ as described by Russia, taking part in its exhibition next week would have to walk out en masse. Unlikely.

Russian Pavilion, Venice. Photo: © Marco Cappelletti

Leaked emails between the Biennale’s office and the Russian Pavilion’s organisers, published by Italian investigative website Open, revealed that the Pavilion will be closed to the public after the opening, when Russia will stage a series of live performances. They will then be beamed on a loop on a screen visible from the outside of the Pavilion for the rest of the Biennale. This is probably another attempt to mitigate any anti-Russia action, but if that screen remains intact for the duration of the Biennale, it will have defied the odds. An easy target, surely?

Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the Biennale’s director, is taking a lot of the heat for the event’s politicisation. After the emails were published, he was accused of helping Russia to circumvent sanctions by agreeing to close its Pavilion. The messages also show the commissioner of the Russian Pavilion, Anastasia Karneeva, asking Buttafuoco’s office for help with visas for roughly 50 artists and pavilion staff, suggesting they were having problems gaining approval.

In a statement in response to the anti-Russia backlash, the Biennale said it was ‘an open institution [that] rejects any form of exclusion or censorship of art’, telling Italian newspaper Il Giornale that it acted ‘in strict compliance with applicable national and international laws and within the limits of its own powers and responsibilities’. It added that, ‘No prohibition of the European sanctions was “circumvented”... the sanctions were rigorously applied.”

Even if the Biennale had wanted to blacklist Russia, which has been absent since 2022, its hands were apparently tied. “As a general premise, La Biennale di Venezia does not decide on national participation; countries themselves choose whether to take part,” Cristiana Costanzo, the Biennale’s head of press and media relations tells The Art Journal.

In Buttafuoco's past life as a journalist, before he was appointed to spearhead the Biennale in 2024, he was known as a right-wing figure. He once led the youth wing of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) party. It was headed by Giorgio Almirante, who was chief of cabinet of the Ministry of Culture  in dictator Benito Mussolini’s wartime government. The Biennale president’s writing CV also lists MSI’s newspaper, Il Secolo d’Italia, and a few other right-wing publications. And, of course, he was appointed to his current lofty position by Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s current far-right leader.

Buttafuoco’s appointment to spearhead the biennale was highly political, so it’s only fitting that under his tenure, the event’s soft-power plays have become centre stage. It’s also worth noting that the event has rarely been totally apolitical. 

‘[Buttafuoco’s appointment] affirms a change of pace that the Meloni government wants to imprint in every cultural and social centre of the nation,’ Matteo Salvini, the deputy parliamentary leader of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, said when he was handed the job. The Biennale’s pace has undeniably shifted a few gears.