Venice row: funding threat

The European Commission has told the Venice Biennale it could lose €2 million in European Union funding if Russia reopens its national pavilion in May. (euronews.com) A letter sent by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency gave Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco 30 days to explain the institution’s position, according to Euronews. The money at risk is an ongoing grant that runs through 2028. (euronews.com) The dispute centers on the 61st International Art Exhibition, which opens to the public on May 9 and runs through November 22, 2026. La Biennale di Venezia listed 99 national participations on March 4, including Russia, after the pavilion sat out the 2022 and 2024 editions. (labiennale.org) (artnews.com) Russia’s pavilion closed in 2022 after artists Kirill Savchenkov and Alexandra Sukhareva and curator Raimundas Malašauskas withdrew following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2024, Russia lent the Giardini building to Bolivia instead of mounting its own show. (artnews.com) European Union commissioners Henna Virkkunen and Glenn Micallef said on March 10 that culture should not be used as a platform for propaganda and warned that Russia’s participation was not compatible with the bloc’s response to the war. The Art Newspaper reported that the threatened grant supports about 20 film projects linked to the Biennale. (theartnewspaper.com) The backlash has spread beyond Brussels. The Associated Press reported on March 13 that 22 European countries protested Russia’s inclusion, while Italy’s culture minister Alessandro Giuli demanded Biennale documents about contacts with Moscow and opened a review of whether the plan fits European Union sanctions rules. (abcnews.go.com) Giuli has also tried to distance Rome from the decision, saying the Biennale foundation is independent even as his ministry faces political fallout. Euronews reported that Giuli skipped a Central Pavilion restoration event and traveled to Lviv instead, while Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called Brussels’ threat “blackmail.” (abcnews.go.com) (euronews.com) Russia has framed the pavilion as proof that its culture is not isolated. Mikhail Shvydkoy, a former culture minister and Kremlin envoy for international cultural exchanges, told ARTnews the exhibition, titled “The Tree is Rooted in the Sky,” would feature more than 50 young musicians, poets and philosophers from Russia and other countries. (artnews.com) Ukraine has pushed back directly against the people involved. On April 10, Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna said Kyiv had sanctioned five representatives of the Russian pavilion, including commissioner Anastasia Karneeva and Shvydkoy, with measures including asset blocks and bans on cultural exchanges. (kyivindependent.com) The immediate deadline is now the Commission’s 30-day clock, with the Biennale due to answer before the exhibition opens on May 9. Until then, a show built around national pavilions is also testing how far European institutions will go to police cultural participation during Russia’s war in Ukraine. (euronews.com) (labiennale.org)