Venice on Strike Again: Art Workers Support Global Dockworkers’ Protest
Pavilions shuttered and cultural workers downed tools in solidarity with marches in other Italian cities and union action affecting 115 ports around the world.
Culture workers at the Venice Biennale went on strike yesterday, 30 October, in solidarity with widespread international protests against the rising cost of living, the militarisation of ports and cuts to school and university funding.
Several national pavilions were either fully or partially closed throughout the day, including the pavilions of the UK and Japan, as well as the Austrian pavilion, where Florentina Holzinger’s Seaworld Venice was a critical favourite during the biennale’s vernissage.
Art workers from the Dutch pavilion were among those who downed tools. Artist Dries Verhoeven’s work for the pavilion, entitled The Fortress, is a raw and rage-filled vocal performance taking place after metal shutters descend over the windows and trap visitors in the darkness.
“The performance we do every day inside this pavilion responds to a closed Europe, militarisation, and self-preservation,” the workers said in a statement. “So on a day when workers are physically putting their bodies on the line to actually stop arms trade and the sending of weapons, we want to support this cause, and not perform today.”
The Austrian pavilion, home to Florentina Holzinger’s Seaworld Venice, closed from 10am-6pm. Courtesy ANGA.
The Japanese pavilion, where in May dolls also went “on strike”. Courtesy ANGA.
The disruption came amid a historic mobilisation of dockworkers’ unions from 115 ports across the world, with the action objecting to the use of ports for arms exports, and campaigning for better working conditions.
The unprecedented strike aimed to disrupt more than 40 percent of Mediterranean cargo and more than $2 billion worth of freight, and demanded explicitly “the immediate end of the genocide of the Palestinian people and the recognition of an independent Palestinian state” as well as the “wars of aggression” waged by the United States and Israel.
The dockworkers’ strike coincided with a national general strike across Italy called for by trade union Unione Sindacale di Base, in opposition to the rising cost of living, as well as widespread student protests demanding more funding for schools.
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In Venice, dozens of cultural workers, including artists, gallery attendants, art handlers, and more, marched from Campo Margherita to Rialto as part of a demonstration organised by arts groups Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) and Biennalocene.
The 2026 edition of the Venice Biennale, which closes on 22 November, has been marked by protest: 240 art workers have joined ANGA’s ongoing campaign calling for Israel’s exclusion from the biennale, which included a strike during the opening week in which 30 national pavilions partially or fully closed in solidarity with Palestine and workers’ rights.
“Today ANGA stands in solidarity with the workers who reject the Biennale’s business as usual approach and are demonstrating their power to shut it down when institutions choose the side of the oppressor,” the organisation said in a statement.
