Italian Culture Minister Calls on Venice Biennale Representative to Resign Over Russian Pavilion
Russia’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022, which was closed to the public. Lorenzo Dalberto/Alamy.
Italy’s minister of culture, Alessandro Giuli, has called on the ministry’s representative on Venice Biennale’s board of directors to step down, amid ongoing backlash over the inclusion of a Russian pavilion at this years’ edition.
In a statement issued yesterday, the minister requested that Tamara Gregoretti depart the post she has held since March 2024, citing a lack of trust.
The statement read: “Gregoretti…did not deem it necessary to announce the possible presence of the Russian Federation at the next Biennale, nor did she subsequently express her support for its participation, despite being aware of the international sensitivity of the issue.”
Ocula approached Venice Biennale and Gregoretti for comment.
In a statement issued alongside its announcement of all participating artists last week, the biennale said: “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.
“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.”
According to reports in various Italian media outlets, Gregoretti does not intend to resign.
In a further statement issued today, Italy’s culture ministry said it has asked the biennale to provide information on Russia’s participation as “a matter of urgency”, with particular reference to the pavilion’s installation and management methods, and their compatibility with the current sanctions regime.
According to the department, Giuli today met with Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and culture minister Tetyana Berezhna, where he stressed that “the Russian Federation’s announced participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition in Venice is unacceptable for Kyiv and contradicts the Italian government’s stance of strong support for Ukraine”.
Culture ministers push back
The ministry’s statements follows several days of mounting pressure on the biennale, after it was revealed last week that Russia would reopen its pavilion for the first time since 2019. The country is due to present the exhibition The tree is rooted in the sky, commissioned by Anastasiia Karneeva and featuring more than 30 artists.
On Tuesday, a letter protesting against Russian inclusion was published by Politico. Signed by 22 European culture ministers the document called on Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the biennale, to reconsider the country’s presence.
The letter highlighted that, according to Ukrainian authorities, at least 342 artists have been killed, while 1,685 cultural heritage sites and 2,483 cultural infrastructure facilities have been destroyed or damaged since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
It read: “In this context, granting Russia a prestigious international cultural platform sends a deeply troubling signal.
We, the undersigned, therefore express our deep concern over the significant risk of an instrumentalisation by the Russian Federation of its participation in the Biennale di Venezia, to project an image of legitimacy and international acceptance that stands in stark contrast to the reality of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine and the destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage, and European and international sanctions.”
“Not compatible with the EU’s collective response”
On the same day, a joint statement from the EU’s technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen and culture commissioner Glenn Micallef condemned the biennale’s decision to allow Russia to reopen its pavilion, and threatened to pull funding worth €2 million should the exhibition’s board not reconsider.
The statement read: “The European Commission has been clear in its stance concerning Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. Culture promotes and safeguards democratic values, fosters open dialogue, diversity and freedom of expression, and should never be used as a platform for propaganda.
Member States, institutions and organisations must act in line with EU sanctions and avoid giving a platform to individuals who have actively supported or justified the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine.”
In conclusion, the statement described the biennale’s decision as “not compatible with the EU’s collective response to Russia’s brutal aggression”.
Artists call for change
As of today, a Change.org petition addressed to biennale president Buttafuoco and titled “stop the normalisation of war crimes through art”, has been signed over 8,000 times. The open letter calls on artists, curators, scholars and cultural workers to “stand in solidarity with those whose lives, cultures, and histories are threatened by war”.
The letter read: “In March 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, La Biennale di Venezia issued an official statement expressing firm condemnation of the aggression and declaring that it would refuse collaboration with official delegations, institutions, or individuals connected to the Russian government while the situation persisted.
This position established an important ethical commitment by one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. Today, as Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, the announced presence of a Russian state pavilion raises urgent questions about how this principle is being upheld.”
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