ביאנלה 2026 – הסערות הפוליטיות שלפני הפתיחה

Relentless political developments continue to roil the Venice Biennale on the eve of its preview days, set to begin on Wednesday (May 6). Over the weekend, the jury panel responsible for selecting the Biennale’s prize winners tendered its resignation.

Although no formal explanation was provided, the timing is telling: the resignation came just one day after the Italian Ministry of Culture dispatched inspectors to the Giardini, where the Biennale is held, in what appears to have been an attempt to identify administrative pretexts for preventing the reopening of the Russian Pavilion. The announcement of its reactivation—following its closure in 2022 at the outbreak of the war in Ukraine—has provoked sweeping opposition across Europe, a stance shared by much of the Italian government (as discussed in a previous post addressing protests against the Russian, Israeli, and American pavilions). The European Union has already signaled that it will withhold previously pledged funding to the Biennale for the years 2025–2027.

At the core lies a profound rift between the Biennale—an autonomous institution whose president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, has expressed unequivocal support for Vladimir Putin—and the Italian government.

In an attempt at a perplexing compromise announced earlier this week, the Biennale declared that the Russian Pavilion would be accessible exclusively to professional visitors from May 6–8, after which it would close. This gesture has satisfied neither side. It followed a prior statement by the now-resigned jury, which declared it would not consider for awards any national representations from countries whose leaders are subject to proceedings at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity—namely Russia and Israel.

In a further unexpected move, the Biennale announced that, this year, prize recipients for both the International Exhibition and the national pavilions would be determined through a form of democratic vote by the visiting public. Notably, the official press release emphasized that all national pavilions—including those of Israel and Russia—remain eligible for these awards.

While international media outlets, from The Guardian to Politico, have framed these developments primarily through the lens of the crisis at  the Russian Pavilion, Haaretz and The New York Times have reported that the resignation may also be linked to support expressed by Italy’s Minister of Culture for the Israeli representative, Blu Simone Fainaru, following a series of interviews he gave to international media and art platforms.

Israel’s Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar—who has boycotted numerous cultural events domestically and overseen the cancellation of national art prizes—welcomed the jury’s resignation, going so far as to frame it as a victory. Such a reading reflects, once again, the increasingly narrow prism through which cultural-political realities are interpreted in the Israeli context.

In fact, the organization Art Not Genocide Alliance, which opposes Israel’s participation, continues to demand that the same criteria applied to Russia be extended to Israel.

For those interested, links are attached to interviews  Goel Pinto conducted with me , addressing the unprecedented political dimensions of this year’s Biennale.