"We are not at war with the Russian people": Venice mayor names condition for closing Russian pavilion at Biennale

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro has said the Russian pavilion at this year's Biennale will be closed if it is used for propaganda.

Source: The Art Newspaper; Ansa (Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata)

Details: Brugnaro said the exhibition must remain a place of "diplomacy and openness".

He was speaking at the launch of the Biennale's Central Pavilion, which has reopened after 16 months of reconstruction. During the event, he said the Russian pavilion would be closed if the Russian government uses it for propaganda, adding: "We are not at war with the Russian people."

Quote: "Russia, as a state that invaded Ukraine, is a problem, but the Russian people are not. I'm pro-Ukrainian, everyone knows that, I've twinned Venice with Odesa. [But] we must work to ensure that culture isn't censorship."

Russia's participation in the 61st Venice Biennale

Russia will reopen its pavilion and take part in the Venice Biennale this year for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

More than 50 young musicians, poets and philosophers from Russia and other countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Mali and Mexico, will be involved in the pavilion.

One of the themes of the exhibition, titled "The Tree is Rooted in the Sky", is the idea that "politics exist within temporary dimensions, whereas cultures communicate in eternity".

The commissioner of the Russian project will be Anastasia Karneyeva, the daughter of Nikolai Volobuyev, a retired general and deputy director of the major defence corporation Rostec.

"This is further proof that Russian culture is not isolated and that attempts to 'cancel' it – undertaken for the past four years by Western political elites – have not succeeded," said Mikhail Shvydkoi, Russia's delegate for international cultural exchanges and a former culture minister.

The organisers said the event will feature five contemporary figures who "are very unpopular with their governments – the US, Israel, China, Russia and even the EU". There are also plans for a programme on Pavel Florensky, an Orthodox priest and philosopher who was executed during the Great Terror.

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has promoted Florensky as one of the thinkers who laid the foundations for the concept of the "Russian world".

Background:

• Ukraine has called on the organisers of the Venice Biennale to reconsider their decision on Russia's participation and to maintain the principled position demonstrated in 2022-24.
• The European Commission later warned it could suspend EU grant funding for the Venice Biennale if Russia is allowed to reopen its pavilion at this year's exhibition.
• Earlier, Italy's Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli called on Tamara Gregoretti – the government's representative on the Venice Biennale board – to resign over Russia's participation in this year's exhibition.
• The organisers of the Venice Biennale later said that no rules had been broken by allowing the Russian pavilion to reopen and insisted that the exhibition must remain a place of dialogue, openness and artistic freedom.

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