The Venice Biennale of Art, the oldest and one of the most prestigious international exhibitions of contemporary art, which will officially open on May 9th, began yesterday for journalists, critics and the professional public - but with a protest.
Venice was in the midst of protests yesterday over Russia's return after four years of war with Ukraine, and new demonstrations have been announced for the end of the opening, when the Alliance "Art Not Genocide" (ANGA) announced a protest action - due to Israel's participation.
Due to the participation of Russia, for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as well as Israel, the international jury resigned on the eve of the 61st Venice Art Biennale, so instead of the prestigious Golden and Silver Lion awards, "Audience Lions" will be awarded at the end of November based on visitor votes.
The first day of the three-day vernissage - when journalists, critics and other members of the professional public have access - began in a puff of pink, yellow and blue smoke, with Ukrainian flags and shouts from activists led by the Russian punk band Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian feminist activist group Femen.
Activists gathered shortly before noon in front of the Russian pavilion in Đardini, carrying Ukrainian flags and chanting "Blood is Russian art."
Wearing their signature pink baklavas, about 15 members of the activist band Pussy Riot began a protest in front of the green building of the Russian pavilion, emitting pink smoke. About 50 activists, including members of the group Femen, occupied the area around the Russian pavilion, which will be closed to visitors after the opening of the 61st Biennale of Art, which runs until November 22.
One of the founders of Pussy Riot Nadya Tolokonnikova, according to Artnet, said she wanted the Russian exhibition to be closed immediately and the pavilion space to be given to artists oppressed by the regime. “Don’t be afraid,” she said. “Stop drinking Russian vodka. Stop taking Russian money,” she added, adding that she didn’t understand why the organizers of the Venice Biennale were so “insistent in supporting bloody Russian art.”
"Is this a crazy, ideological catastrophe going on in their heads or are these some financial ties to Russia?" she added in front of the Russian pavilion, which features dozens of artists from Russia and other countries, many of whom are musicians.
The protest lasted about twenty minutes, with some participants climbing onto the pavilion and waving Ukrainian flags. Pussy Riot members raised their middle fingers at the building, and one of them screamed: “Murder!” Towards the end of the performance, the participants formed a line, displaying political slogans on their bare breasts, such as: “Biennale of Evil” and “Russia Kills, Biennale Exhibits”. Another frequently chanted slogan was: “Art for Exhibition, Graves Below”.
Russia's return to Venice, announced in March, has also sparked heated reactions among politicians in the European Union, which has withdrawn its two million euros in support for the Biennale for the next edition in 2028, stating in a statement that art "should never be used as a propaganda platform."
Italian Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli decided to boycott the opening of the Biennale in protest of Russia's participation. However, despite Italy's support for Ukraine, the Italian government did not interfere with the organizers' right to make their own decisions regarding who would participate in the more than 120-year-old exhibition.
The Russian exhibition "The Tree Rooted in the Sky" brings together around fifty young musicians, poets and philosophers, and has also drawn criticism because the commissioner of the Russian pavilion is still Anastasia Karneeva, daughter Nikolai Volovuyev, a senior official at Rostec, a state corporation considered key in Moscow's war machine against Kiev.
Leaked email correspondence between Karneyeva and Venice Biennale officials shows that they have been working since January on a strategy for Russia's participation without violating European Union sanctions.
Ahead of the Biennale, Nadya Tolokonnikova has come up with her own concept for an alternative Russian pavilion featuring art by Russian political prisoners. The exhibition “Captured Resistance” mainly features drawings by artists who were imprisoned, sometimes using envelopes or sheets for visual expression, and is open at the Rich-Fisch Gallery in Strasbourg until May 31.
On the first day of the opening, a protest was also held in the Arsenal area, where the Israeli exhibition is located while the Israel Pavilion itself is still being renovated.
About a hundred pro-Palestinian activists marched through the Arsenal to protest Israel's participation. The march was peaceful, with demonstrators chanting anti-Israel slogans and carrying banners with pro-Palestinian slogans, such as "No to the Genocide Art Wash", "No to the Genocide Pavilion at the Biennale", "We stand with Palestine now because we know that the destruction of Palestine is the destruction of the world".
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