Russia returns to Venice

Russia will reopen its national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, ending a four-year absence after the space went dark in 2022. (artnews.com) The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7 and 8 at the Giardini, the Arsenale and other Venice sites. (labiennale.org) Russia’s pavilion will present “The tree is rooted in the sky,” a project billed as a collaboration among young musicians, philosophers and poets from different geographies. (myartguides.com) The Biennale is organized around national pavilions, so reopening the Russian building puts a state presence back inside one of the art world’s highest-profile international forums. In 2022, the Russian team withdrew after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the pavilion did not mount a national exhibition. (theins.press) Finland said on April 16 that its public officials will not take part in the Biennale while Russia is allowed to open its pavilion, and Minister of Science and Culture Mari-Leena Talvitie said Finland would keep working with European partners on a common line. (okm.fi) Pressure has spread beyond Finland. Reporting in March said ministers from 22 countries, including Ukraine, sent a letter to Biennale management opposing Russia’s participation, while Italy’s government also said it opposed Moscow’s presence. (italien.news, euronews.com) Biennale officials have defended the decision by citing artistic freedom, dialogue and opposition to censorship, according to Finland’s culture ministry summary of the board’s position. Russia’s envoy for international cultural cooperation, Mikhail Shvydkoy, told ARTnews that Russia “never left” the Biennale and was instead seeking “new forms of creative activity.” (okm.fi, artnews.com) A separate preview-week program, “1922 Revisited,” is scheduled for May 5 through May 9 and is curated by art historian Dr. Janine A. Sytsma through Third Space Art Foundation. The project says it will bring artists from Africa and its diasporas into dialogue with the 1922 Biennale’s framing of African art. (globenewswire.com) That leaves Venice heading into its May opening with two tracks at once: a main exhibition titled “In Minor Keys,” carried forward after curator Koyo Kouoh’s death, and a Russian pavilion reopening that governments across Europe are still trying to stop. (labiennale.org, dw.com)