As controversy mounts over Russia’s plans to mount its first Venice Biennale pavilion since the nation’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, 37 members of the European Parliament signed a letter that calls for the European Union to cease all funding to the Biennale.
The EU has not publicly stated how much money it gives to the Biennale, which is not just the top art exhibition in Europe but the biggest show of its kind anywhere in the world. But according to the letter, which was obtained by Politico on Friday, the EU has granted around 2 million euros to the Biennale over a three-year period.
“Under no circumstances should Russia, a state subject to extensive European Union sanctions on trade, goods and services, be permitted to participate in an event financed by European taxpayers’ money,” the letter states. “The Russian pavilion must likewise not be used for any activities organised by Russia, whether in physical or digital form.”
Calling the pavilion “unacceptable,” the pavilion goes on to note, “Every day that Russia’s pavilion remains on the programme of the Venice Biennale is a day the European Union’s credibility is weakened. Every euro of EU funding that flows to an institution hosting that pavilion is a contradiction in terms. The Ukrainian people, who are fighting and dying for the values this Union was built upon, deserve better than ambiguity.”
The letter calls for a formal review of the Russian Pavilion’s participants and organizers, with the possibility of seeking sanctions against some individuals as a result. Moreover, the letter’s signatories are asking for “targeted restrictive measures against any individuals or entities involved in the Russian pavilion who can be credibly linked to the Russian government, its propaganda apparatus, or entities supporting the war effort.”
The EU has already threatened to pull funding from the Venice Biennale over the Russian Pavilion, but beyond a short statement condemning the pavilion, the EU has not said whether it has taken any action.
A range of individuals and national governments have also denounced the pavilion, which appears to be taking place as planned.
The Biennale has said it cannot oust a nation from the exhibition and that the show is “a place of dialogue, openness, and artistic freedom.” Yet in 2022, when Russia launched its war in Ukraine, the exhibition explicitly commented on the conflict and took Ukraine’s side, staging a dedicated Ukrainian project in the Giardini park, where many national pavilions are located. That year, Russia’s artists and curators elected to close their pavilion; in 2024, Russia handed over its pavilion to Bolivia.
Seemingly in an effort to address the controversy, the Biennale has promised two unusual additions to the show that obliquely deal with prior protests.
One is a project dedicated to Carlo Ripa di Meana, a former Biennale president who, in 1973, decided to shutter the art exhibition and instead mount a presentation about the military dictatorship in Chile. This project will involve figures who are “currently unwelcome to their governments, from the US, Israel, China, Russia, and even the EU,” according to current Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco.
The second addition will be called “The Column and the Foundation of Truth” and will involve programming related to Pavel Florensky, a Russian Orthodox priest who was executed by firing squad by the Soviet government in 1937.
