Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli will not attend the opening of the 61st Venice Biennale in protest at the presence of the Russian pavilion at the event.
The Ministry of Culture announced in a note: “Minister Alessandro Giuli will not travel to Venice on the pre-opening days of the 61st Venice Biennale Art Exhibition nor will he attend the opening ceremony, scheduled for 9 May.”
Moscow had not participated in the Biennale since 2022, the year of the invasion of Ukraine, but this year it decided to reopen its pavilion with the approval of the Biennale Foundation, headed by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. This has caused tensions with the Ministry of Culture, Brussels and several European countries .
However, the Russian Federation pavilion will remain closed to the public from 9 May to 22 November 2026, for the entire duration of the event. It will only be open to the media from 6 to 8 May, Adnkronos reported last Friday.
Tensions between the Biennale and the Italian government
Russia’s presence has never been digested by Minister Giuli, who called for the resignation of Tamara Gregoretti, the Culture Ministry’s representative on the Biennale’s board of directors, in March.
Gregoretti had not warned of the possible presence of a Russian pavilion at the event, nor had she opposed Moscow’s participation.
“I am serene and have no intention of resigning,” Gregoretti had replied in a note, stating that she was moving within the autonomy of the institution, “according to which the members of the board of directors do not represent those who appointed them”.
The issue had created divisions in the majority, with Infrastructure and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini coming out in favour of Moscow’s participation in the Biennale.
“There are already too many conflicts around, those who do art, those who do culture, those who do sport must bring people together, must unite, must include. I am not for the exclusion of anyone, so I invite the Biennale to go ahead,” the League leader said.
Buttafuoco compares the Biennale to the UN
“An institution that can be considered the UN of art from which no nation can be excluded,” Buttafuoco told two deputies of the 5 Star Movement, Gaetano Amato and Enrico Cappelletti, who met him on Friday to bring “solidarity”.
The president of the Biennale Foundation repeatedly reiterated “that he had not violated any rules and that he had acted in full compliance with the agreement in place with the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (Eacea)”.
Biennale jury excludes Russia and Israel from awards
Meanwhile, the jury of the 61st Venice Biennale announced on Thursday that it will exclude Russia and Israel from the awards, in an unprecedented decision.
Excluded from the competition for the Golden Lion and Silver Lion will be “those countries whose leaders are currently accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC),” a note reads.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for war crimes against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
The statement is signed by president Solange Farkas and jury members Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma and Giovanna Zapperi.
“As members of the jury we also feel a responsibility towards the Biennale’s historic role as a platform that connects art to the urgencies of our time,” it reads. “In this edition of the Biennale we wish to express our intention: our commitment to the defence of human rights.”
Tensions with Brussels
The European Commission had threatened to suspend or revoke the Biennale’s two-million-euro funding if the organisation’s reasons for including Russia were not “satisfactory”.
Brussels “strongly” condemned the Biennale’s decision to host the Russian pavilion at the 61st edition of the event.
The “Member States, institutions and organisations must act in line with EU sanctions and avoid giving space to individuals who have actively supported or justified the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine,” Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen and Culture Commissioner Glenn Micallef said in a note in March.
In addition to Brussels, the Culture and Foreign Ministers of 22 EU countries had called for a reconsideration of Russia’s participation in the event in a letter (source in Italian) addressed to Buttafuoco and the Biennale’s board of directors.