Venice Biennale clash

The European Union said this week it intends to cut Venice Biennale funding after organizers allowed Russia to return for the 2026 art exhibition. (artnews.com) European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas made the statement after the Foreign Affairs Council met on Monday, April 21, in Luxembourg, where ministers discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine. POLITICO reported that Kallas said Russia should not be allowed to exhibit while it is attacking Ukrainian culture. (politico.eu) The funding at stake is a €2 million grant, according to ARTnews, and the dispute centers on Russia’s first official pavilion at the Biennale since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Art Newspaper reported in March that Brussels had already warned it could pull support if Russia’s participation went ahead. (artnews.com, theartnewspaper.com) The timing is tight. La Biennale di Venezia says Biennale Arte 2026, titled *In Minor Keys*, opens to the public on Saturday, May 9, runs through November 22, and holds its awards ceremony and inauguration on the same opening day after preview dates on May 6, 7, and 8. (labiennale.org) On April 22, La Biennale named the five-member international jury that will assign the Golden Lion and other prizes. The board appointed Solange Oliveira Farkas as president, with Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi serving alongside her. (labiennale.org, artnews.com) La Biennale’s own planning documents show the scale of the exhibition now moving ahead under that pressure. The 61st edition includes 110 invited participants in the main show and 100 national participations, spread across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and other Venice venues. (labiennale.org, labiennale.org) The Biennale is structured around national pavilions, many of them permanent buildings in the Giardini, where countries mount their own official exhibitions alongside the central curated show. La Biennale describes the Giardini as the original site where national pavilions began to be built from 1907. (labiennale.org) That pavilion system is what turned Russia’s return into a diplomatic fight rather than a programming dispute inside the main exhibition. Russia’s pavilion had been absent from recent editions after the 2022 invasion, and its reappearance now has drawn boycott threats from some European officials and public criticism from artists and cultural figures, according to ARTnews and Euronews. (artnews.com, euronews.com) The 2026 edition is also proceeding under the curatorial framework left by Koyo Kouoh, whom La Biennale said selected the jury before her death. The institution has said it is carrying out *In Minor Keys* with the support of Kouoh’s family. (labiennale.org, labiennale.org) With two weeks until the May 9 opening, the Biennale is trying to stage its awards, jury deliberations, and national presentations while Brussels weighs whether to pull money over Russia’s pavilion. (labiennale.org, artnews.com)