Venice Biennale opens amid protests

The Venice Biennale is supposed to be the art world’s Olympics — national pavilions, big statements, Golden Lions, the whole prestige machine. This year, the machine opened with parts missing. The 61st edition began on May 9 in Venice, but without its international jury, without the usual opening-day prize ritual, and under loud protests over the presence of Russia and Israel. The result is not just backstage drama. It changes how one of contemporary art’s biggest institutions decides what counts as cultural recognition. ### What actually broke? The immediate break came on April 30, when the Biennale said it had received the resignations of its entire five-member international jury — Solange Farkas, Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi. That jury had been appointed to decide the exhibition’s official prizes. Once it quit, the normal awards structure collapsed with it. (labiennale.org) ### Why did the jury quit? The fight was over whether countries tied to alleged crimes against humanity should remain eligible for prizes. The jurors had moved to withhold awards from countries whose governments or leaders had been charged by the International Criminal Court, including Russia and Israel. That position triggered a wider rupture, and then the jury itself resigned. Basically, the Biennale got pulled into the same argument now running through museums, universities, and film festivals — can an art platform pretend politics stops at the door? (labiennale.org) ### What happened outside the pavilions? The protests were not symbolic background noise. They were physical and public. Pussy Riot and FEMEN activists protested Russia’s return to the Biennale, including an action at the Russian pavilion on May 6 with smoke flares and chants of “No Putin in Venice.” On May 8, thousands also marched against Israel’s presence over the war in Gaza, and some national pavilions temporarily closed while artists and curators joined the demonstration. (houstonpublicmedia.org) ### So how are prizes working now? The Biennale replaced the jury-centered model with two “Visitors’ Lions.” Instead of experts choosing the winners during the opening, ticket-holding visitors will vote by email for one participating artist in the main exhibition and one national pavilion. The ceremony has been pushed to November 22, the final day of the show. That is a real structural change, not a cosmetic delay. The institution is effectively saying: if the jury system is politically unworkable this year, the public will stand in for it. (houstonpublicmedia.org) ### Why does Koyo Kouoh matter so much here? Because this edition was conceived by Koyo Kouoh, and she died on May 10, 2025, before the exhibition opened. The Biennale kept her show, *In Minor Keys*, in place with her family’s support and says it is carrying out the project as she defined it. So the 2026 exhibition is already posthumous in one important sense — a major global show unfolding in the shadow of its curator’s absence. (labiennale.org) ### And what about Henrike Naumann? Germany’s pavilion is also marked by loss. Henrike Naumann, selected to represent Germany alongside Sung Tieu, died in February at 41. The Biennale and German organizers have said her pavilion will still be realized from her completed plans. So even apart from the geopolitical fight, this Biennale carries an unusual amount of grief inside its official program. (labiennale.org) ### Is there still art beneath the noise? Yes — and that is part of the tension. National pavilions are still trying to make work that people will actually remember. India’s pavilion, *Geographies of Distance: remembering home*, uses earth, thread, bamboo, and migration as its core materials and themes. But turns out even strong work is landing inside a frame dominated by boycotts, eligibility fights, and institutional improvisation. (labiennale.org) ### Bottom line? The Venice Biennale did open. But it opened as a test of whether a global art exhibition can still act like a neutral prestige arena when wars, prosecutions, and public pressure are crashing directly into its prize system. This year, the answer looks like no. (houstonpublicmedia.org) (designboom.com)