The world’s most watched art event is facing its sharpest internal revolt yet. More than 70 artists and curators participating in the 61st Venice Biennale have issued an open letter. It demands that La Biennale di Venezia exclude Israel, Russia, and the United States from this year’s edition. This is the first time curators of the central exhibition itself have formally turned against the institution they serve.
The letter expands a prior call made by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), which had targeted only Israel. This new appeal widens the demand to all “current regimes committing war crimes.” Its signatories include internationally recognised artists such as Alfredo Jaar, Tabita Rezaire, Pio Abad, Zoe Leonard, and Gala Porras-Kim. Critically, it is also signed by Rasha Salti, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, and Rory Tsapayi. The hree of the five curators appointed to realise In Minor Keys. It is the late Koyo Kouoh’s curatorial vision for the Biennale’s main exhibition.
The Arsenale Question in Venice Biennale
At the heart of the Venice Biennale protest is a spatial and political decision. The Biennale has placed Israel’s national pavilion inside the Arsenale — the same building that houses the central exhibition — while its permanent pavilion in the Giardini undergoes renovation. Signatories argue this move “intrudes upon and goes directly against Kouoh’s curatorial vision.”
The letter also warns of “conditions of violence and fear” arising from the police presence required to protect the Israeli pavilion. This is not a peripheral concern. The Arsenale is where visitors spend the most time, where the curatorial argument of the main show unfolds. Inserting a politically contested national pavilion into that space, critics argue, changes the meaning of everything around it.
Who Is Representing Israel
Israel will be represented by Belu-Simion Fainaru, a Romanian-born artist based in Haifa. Fainaru has responded to earlier criticism by stating that “art is a place for dialogue, not for exclusion.” The Biennale, for its part, has not responded to a formal request submitted by the letter’s signatories on March 13, asking it to revoke the Arsenale placement decision.
Russia, the US, and a Widening Protest
The protest is no longer only about Palestine. Russia’s return to the Biennale — after voluntarily withdrawing in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine — has generated a parallel wave of backlash. The European Union has threatened to withdraw €2 million (approximately ₹18.5 crore) in funding. Criticism has also come from within the Italian government itself.
Russia is returning this year with a group exhibition featuring over 50 young musicians, poets, and philosophers from Russia and other countries. However, the Biennale’s own 2022 statement declared that it would “not accept the presence at any of its events of official delegations, institutions, or persons tied in any capacity to the Russian government.” The open letter quotes this statement directly — and asks why it no longer applies.
The United States has been drawn into the controversy more recently. The U.S. will be represented by Utah-born sculptor Alma Allen. The call to include the U.S. in any exclusion gained high-profile momentum when New York critic Jerry Saltz wrote on social media on March 29: “the United States should be banned, as well.”
The ANGA Campaign
ANGA’s involvement predates this latest letter. In October 2025, following confirmation of Israel’s inclusion, ANGA began circulating its own open letter among Biennale participants and workers. By March 2026, that letter had gathered 199 signatures from artists, curators, and art workers across dozens of national pavilions — including those representing Belgium, Brazil, Britain, France, Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Wales. It was formally delivered to the Biennale’s president and board, and has yet to receive a response.
The Neutrality Argument of Venice Biennale Under Fire
The Venice Biennale protest is, at its core, a challenge to the institution’s self-image. La Biennale di Venezia has responded to all pressure with a consistent position: it is a space of “artistic freedom” that “rejects any form of exclusion or censorship in culture and art.”
The open letter’s authors reject this framing directly. “Allowing governments that are actively committing war crimes, atrocities, and genocide to participate is not neutral,” the letter states. This argument echoes a broader debate in the global art world: whether institutional neutrality in the face of documented atrocity is a principled position or an abdication of responsibility.
“A community of nations can only exist if states are sanctioned when they egregiously violate international law and human rights,” the letter continues. For the Biennale, which styles itself as a forum for global cultural dialogue, the question is whether that dialogue can proceed as normal while some of its participants stand accused of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and illegal occupation.
The 2024 Precedent
The situation echoes events at the 2024 Venice Biennale, when the Israeli pavilion was forced to close entirely amid protest pressure. That closure was unprecedented. Whether a similar outcome follows in 2026 — or whether the Biennale’s firm stance holds — will be one of the defining stories of the art calendar this year.
What This Means for the Art World
The scale and institutional specificity of this protest is significant. When curators of a major exhibition sign a letter opposing the body that commissioned them, it signals a breakdown in the assumed separation between art and geopolitics. The Venice Biennale has long operated on the assumption that art transcends national politics. That assumption is now under direct and organised challenge.
For Indian readers and practitioners, the protest raises questions that resonate locally: What does it mean for a cultural institution to claim neutrality? Who gets to speak in the name of art? And what responsibility do artists have when the platform they inhabit is shared with states they consider complicit in harm?
The 61st Venice Biennale’s pre-opening is scheduled for May 6–8, with the awards ceremony on May 9. The weeks ahead are likely to bring further declarations, possible boycotts, and potentially on-ground protests at the Arsenale itself.
EVENT DETAILS
61st Venice Biennale — In Minor Keys
Pre-opening: 6–8 May 2026
Public opening: 9 May 2026
Venue: Giardini and Arsenale, Venice, Italy
Running through: 23 November 2026
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
