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The forthcoming Venice Biennale will see the first Russian Pavilion since the onset of the nation’s war in Ukraine in 2022, and few outside Russia seem happy about it.
Ukraine itself issued a blistering statement about the pavilion this weekend, calling for the Biennale to exclude Russia this time around.
“The Venice Biennale is one of the world’s most authoritative art platforms,” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in a statement posted to social media, “and it must not become a stage for whitewashing the war crimes that Russia commits daily against the Ukrainian people and our cultural heritage.”
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Sybiha went on to say that Russia “openly uses culture as an instrument of political influence,” and he accused the Biennale of reneging on past support of Ukraine. He was likely referring to how, in 2022, the Biennale mounted a Ukraine-focused installation in the Giardini, the same park where Russia’s pavilion is located. A statement from the Biennale explicitly denounced what the show described as a “brutal invasion by the Russian government.”
Russia has not participated in the Venice Biennale since 2019. In 2022, the pavilion was closed to the public. In 2024, the pavilion was opened—but with Bolivia, a country that has sought to maintain diplomatic ties with Russia, showing there instead. For that reason, Russia has tried to claim that its 2026 pavilion, featuring a range of artists in a show curated by Anastasia Karneeva, not as a return but as part of an effort to continue “seeking new forms of creative activity in the current circumstances,” as one Russian official previously told ARTnews.
In 2024, amid pressure to eject Israel and Iran, the Biennale stated that it does not have the power to exclude national pavilions because “all countries recognized by the Italian Republic may autonomously request to participate officially.” For that reason, the Biennale claimed, it cannot “take into consideration any petition.”
Asked about the new statements regarding Russia’s 2026 participation, a Biennale spokesperson referred ARTnews to a March 4 announcement containing a comprehensive list of all the nations with pavilions this year.
“In response to the communications and requests for participation from Countries, La Biennale di Venezia rejects any form of exclusion or censorship of culture and art,” the March 4 release reads. “La Biennale, like the city of Venice, continues to be a place of dialogue, openness, and artistic freedom, encouraging connections between peoples and cultures, with enduring hope for the cessation of conflicts and suffering.”
The Biennale previously said in 2024 that the 2022 decision to close the Russian Pavilion was made by its curator, not the Biennale itself. That curator, Raimundas Malašauskas, withdrew alongside artists Kirill Savchenkov and Alexandra Sukhareva, who issued a joint statement in which they called the war in Ukraine “politically and emotionally unbearable.”
Ukraine’s statement coincided with the circulation of an open letter that similarly calls for Russia’s pavilion to be nixed by the Biennale. Addressed to Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the letter alleges that the inclusion of Russia tarnishes the exhibition’s image of being nonpartisan.
“The claim that ‘culture is above politics’ is never neutral,” that letter reads. “In the case of contemporary Russia, this formula has become a political instrument used to promote aggression and advance state agendas while disguising them behind the language of cultural exchange and dialogue.”
Among the signatories are Pina Picierno, an Italian politician who serves as vice president of the European Parliament, and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, a collector who runs an art space in Venice. Also among the signatories were artists Ragnar Kjartansson, Tomás Saraceno, and Nadya Tolokonnikova, a member of the dissident Russian collective Pussy Riot.
Pussy Riot itself teased a protest against the Russian Pavilion, writing on Instagram, “Pussy Riot is coming to Biennale with an intervention. We want to express unconditional support for Ukraine, for the victims of Russian war crimes, for Russian political prisoners, and for Ukrainian prisoners of war.”
These statements come following a denouncement from Lithuanian foreign affairs minister Kęstutis Budrys, who wrote last week on social media, “There can be no return to business as usual with a murderer and a terrorist.” He called the Biennale’s choice to let Russia participate “abhorrent.”
Update, 3/9/26, 2 p.m.: This article has been updated with a comment from a Biennale spokesperson.
