EU stops funding the art biennale because of Russia culture

The outrage was not only great in Ukraine at the time – unlike Russia, it does not have the luxury of its own pavilion. But also in the EU and in the Italian government, especially with Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli. In their eyes, Russia’s participation represented not only a moral affront, but also possibly a breach of EU sanctions. But the president of the Biennale, the right-wing journalist and Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, who had expressly invited Russia, stood firm. He defended Russia’s participation as a peacemaking measure: “The Biennale is… a place of dialogue, openness and artistic freedom that promotes connections between peoples and cultures.”

Russian pavilion remains closed

But there was no sign of the spirit of exchange and reconciliation in the name of art in the pavilion. There was no art to be seen either. The Russians had decorated their rooms with opulent bouquets of flowers, which gradually withered. A DJ played deafeningly loud militant riot techno. The curator Anastasia Karneyeva, daughter of an arms manager with the rank of intelligence general at the state-owned company Rostec, called it a “performance project” and gave it the title “The tree is rooted in heaven”. It marks the end of Russia’s cultural isolation in the West.

The fact that a few stragglers actually stomped along in this cynical, morbid setting was less due to a renewed interest in Russia, but rather due to the free vodka, which was generously served in plastic cups. Instead of trying to gain sympathy points with innocuous art like the USA, Israel and other nations are currently dealing with reputational problems, Russia gave the world the biggest possible middle finger.

Even the Russia friends at the top of the Biennale must have been relieved by the arrangement that was finally agreed upon in order not to provoke the EU even further: the pavilion only remained open during the three preview days. It has been closed since then.