Italy’s Culture Ministry is investigating the Venice Biennale, the world's most prestigious art festival, after event organizers announced that Russia would be allowed to return to the event after a 4 year ban, Italian media reported on Wednesday.
Russia’s group exhibition, “The tree is rooted in the sky,” will be accessible to the press and industry elite during the Biennale’s preview. The exhibition’s “public” run, despite being scheduled from May 9th to November 22nd, will be strictly closed to the general public, event organizers have announced.
Practically all Western cultural institutions have cut ties with Russia since February 2022 over the Ukraine conflict. Artists, performers, conductors, as well as globally recognised Russian theatrical, orchestral and balletic classics have been struck from theatre rosters in what the Kremlin has dismissed as a pointless attempt to “cancel” Russian culture.
According to Corriere della Sera, following the announcement that the Russian pavilion would reopen, and the EU's subsequent withdrawal of $2.3 million in funding for the event, inspectors were dispatched to the Biennale Foundation to examine documents and financial records related to the planned reopening. Newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that no “irregularities” were found in terms of compliance with sanctions imposed on Russia.
Officials were also reportedly instructed to review documents related to the pavilions of Iran and Israel. The Jewish sate’s full program is scheduled to go ahead, despite widespread objections from the artistic community.
The European Commission condemned the decision to allow Russia reopen its national pavilion – a complex designed and built in 1913-14 using 17th and 18th Century Russian architectural motifs – that was last year handed over to the event “for cooperation and visibility for activities dedicated to universities, schools, families, and the general public as part of La Biennale’s Educational program.”
Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said he would not attend the opening of the festival on May 9. Last week, the Biennale jury said it would exclude Russia and Israel from award consideration.
Biennale Foundation chief Pietrangelo Buttafuoco pushed back against the criticism, comparing the institution to “the UN of art, from which no nation can be excluded.”
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini argued that the art sphere should not fall victim to politics. “I am not for the exclusion of anyone, so I invite the Biennale to go ahead,” Salvini said, as quoted by Euronews.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized the EU's funding cut, calling it “a relapse into anti-culture, a condition that the West has been suffering from in recent years.” In remarks made to TASS, she warned: “Unless they cure it, they’ll remain uncultured forever.”