Venice Biennale, Iran will not participate: Buttafuoco’s words, all the latest news

The initiative symbolically inaugurated the Biennial’s journey by bringing the themes of ‘In Minor Keys’ to the mainland, through interventions that invite the public to move freely, play, interact and rest.

Buttafuoco also recalled in his speech “the difficult and complicated days of our existence” and underlined that “history continually knocks” at what is never a decoration but the profound feeling that runs through art”.

Iran will not participate

Meanwhile, the Venice Biennale has announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not participate in the 61st International Art Exhibition, explaining that “the official communication has arrived”. Iran had announced its presence in Venice in February before the outbreak of the war and on that occasion had announced that the commissioner of participation was Aydin Mahdizadeh Tehrani.

The official list now includes 100 National Participationswith the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Seychelles, which arrived after the announcement on March 4th.

Mayor Brugnaro: “I hope for a hug between Buttafuoco and Giuli in Venice”

“The largest Biennials have seen the current events of the world. If there were no controversy, clashes, different ideas, culture would not be culture, and the Biennale would not be the Biennale” said the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, speaking at the first appointment of the Art Biennale in Forte Marghera. “Someone said that there is a dispute in the center-right over culture. I don’t believe that culture is either right or left, it seems to me to be something for weak minds. They are free people who think freely”, added Brugnaro.

With the 2026 Art Biennale “Venice has taken on an international role and I agree with the position of the government and Europe which wanted to verify that there was nothing illegal” with respect to the participation of the Russian Federation with its own pavilion and that it “was totally within the regime of legality”. “I think I have the qualifications to be able to ask the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, perhaps during the summer, to come to Venice. I invite him now even if in that period I will no longer be mayor – added Brugnaro -. I’m hoping for a handshake, a hug again between Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and minister Giuli: it would be a beautiful thing, it would be a very intelligent thing.”

“The Italian government did well and the European Union did well to verify all this and to clearly state what the Italian and European position is” with respect to the Russian Federation in the aggression against Ukraine, the mayor observed. “We agree that foreign policy is made by the Italian government, there is no doubt. We are Italians and we are on the side of our government. The Biennale is something else – concluded Brugnaro – and I think this moment can be useful, very useful for our position in the future. It applies to Russia, it applies to Israel, it probably also applies to many other countries that are forgotten, but which however could be and are present in Venice”.

Nadia Tolokonnikova is also arriving

Nadia Tolokonnikova, one of the founders of the Pussy Riot collective of Russian activists, is arriving in Venice where she anticipated his protest action against the reopening of the Russian Pavilion as part of the 61st International Art Exhibition. During the preview days of the Exhibition this week, Tolokonnikova anticipates to Adnkronos, the activist will meet some important collectors, as part of the campaign she started together with others to represent political prisoners at the Russian Pavilion at the 2028 Exhibition, with works by political prisoners and former political prisoners.

Also as a representative of the Platform for dialogue with the Russian democratic forces in exile created in recent months by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the activist then asked for an interview with the former governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, the mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro and the President of the Biennale Foundation Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. At the moment, only Zaia seems to have expressed a willingness to dialogue.

Tolokonnikova was a political prisoner after being sentenced to two years in prison with Maria Alyokhina and Eekaterina Samutsevich for taking part in Pussy Riot’s performance against Vladimir Putin at the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow in February 2012. Last December, Pussy Riot was designated an extremist organization by a Moscow court following a closed-door hearing. Tolokonnikova, who left Russia some time ago, has been on the list of ‘foreign agents’ since 2021. She is now wanted for violating the rules for foreign agents and for publicly offending the religious feelings of believers.