“This building stands on Ukrainian mass graves”: Femen and Pussy Riot protest against Russia’s participation in the Biennale

The protest took place at a media event three days before the exhibition was scheduled to begin in the Italian metropolis on Saturday. “We are here to remember that the only Russian culture, the only Russian art today is blood,” said Femen activist Inna Shevchenko, alluding to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. “This building stands on Ukrainian mass graves.” According to them, it was the first time that the two groups held a joint protest.

In addition, around a hundred demonstrators protested in front of the Israeli exhibition building. They held up banners that read “No artwashing genocide.

In March, the organizers of the biennale announced that Russia would take part in the art exhibition again in 2022 for the first time since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The announcement was met with criticism from, among others, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha.

Several European culture and foreign ministers wrote a letter to the organizers and condemned Moscow’s participation as “unacceptable” given the ongoing war. The European Commission later said it wanted to “suspend or terminate” its funding of two million euros over three years.

At the end of April, the international jury announced its resignation after declaring that it would not award prizes to countries whose heads of state and government had been issued arrest warrants for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). This meant Russia and Israel.

The Russian exhibition space will now not be open to the public during the Biennale. Instead, musical performances are recorded in advance and later projected on screens outside.

Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco told reporters: “If the Biennale began to select not works but affiliations, not visions but passports, it would cease to be what it has always been: the place where the world comes together – even more so when the world is torn apart.”

Due to the resignation of the jury and the “extraordinary international geopolitical situation,” the organizers postponed the awards ceremony from May 9th to November 22nd – the last day of the exhibition. The Biennale also announced that it would award two prizes that visitors can vote on. One of them could be awarded to any participant – including Russia – “in accordance with the principle of inclusion and equal treatment”.

The Venice Biennale has been taking place since 1895. This year it runs from May 9th to November 22nd.