The ministers of culture and foreign affairs of 22 countries signed a joint letter of protest against Russia's participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition in Venice. The letter was addressed to the President of the Venice Biennale Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and the board of the institution, and was also handed over to the Minister of Culture of Italy Alessandro Giuli, reports the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.

The document was signed by representatives of the governments of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Ukraine. The statement said: “Such a prestigious international event cannot be a platform for building the soft power of a country that has decided to demonstrate its strength through armed aggression.”.

Governments noted that the Venice Biennale has been one of the main international platforms for artistic freedom and cultural exchange for more than a century. At the same time, they believe that such institutions should also bear moral responsibility, given Russia’s war against Ukraine.

[see_also ids\u003d"

" A culture that is silent about killing people becomes a culture of death and terror,” wrote Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage Marta Czenkowska on platform X.

Earlier, the Italian Ministry of Culture stated that the decision to allow Russia to participate in the 61st Venice Biennale was made independently by the Biennale Foundation, despite the government’s position. Rome emphasized that Italy continues to cooperate with Ukraine in restoring cultural heritage.

The European Commission also said it could deprive the Venice Biennale of grant funding if Russia is allowed to open a national pavilion. Brussels noted that such a decision is incompatible with the EU’s collective position on Russian aggression.

[see_also ids\u003d"

Russia was a permanent participant in the Venice Biennale and has its own pavilion, opened in 1914. However, in 2022, her exhibition at the 59th Biennale was canceled a few days after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Despite this, in early March the organizers announced the list of participants of the 61st Biennale, among which Russia again appeared. The Russian pavilion, called The Tree Is Rooted In the Sky, is planned to be located in the Giardini exhibition space, and Anastasia Karneeva has been appointed commissioner of the exhibition.

According to Suspilne Kultura, in Ukraine the decision of the organizers caused criticism among the cultural community and international organizations. Co-curator of the Ukrainian pavilion Ksenia Malykh noted that representatives of the biennale explained this by procedural rules, according to which the institution does not make political decisions regarding the participation of states.

[see_also ids\u003d"

As stated in a press release provided by ZN. UA, PinchukArtCentre, as an official participant in the parallel program of the 61st Venice Biennale, in its statement emphasized that the Kremlin is openly turning art into a propaganda tool and “soft power” to justify its military aggression and imperial ambitions. As evidence of the conscious use of culture as a weapon, the art center cited the words of the director of the Hermitage that Russian “muses are not silent” while the war is going on.

Representatives of the institution emphasized that in conditions of a full-scale invasion, inaction and attempts by the biennale organizers to maintain distance are not a manifestation of neutrality. PinchukArtCentre called on the exhibition team to clearly condemn the actions of the aggressor country and exclude the Russian pavilion from the list of participants.

On March 8, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Sibiga and the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Culture Tatyana Berezhnaya called on the organizers to reconsider the decision. Berezhnaya told Suspilna Kultura that Ukraine is working to prevent Russia’s participation in two directions: negotiating with the European Commission and coordinating the position with the ministers of culture of European states. According to her, the cessation of funding for the Russian pavilion could make its participation impossible or dependent on the decision of European institutions.

[see_also ids\u003d"

" The pavilion in which Russia plans to host its exhibition was built at the beginning of the twentieth century by Ukrainian philanthropist Mikhail Tereshchenko. However, as always, they appropriate everything - in particular, our pavilion, which is now being used for political purposes,” Berezhnaya noted.

The minister also said that since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has destroyed more than 1,700 cultural heritage sites in Ukraine, and killed 346 artists and 132 Ukrainian and foreign media workers. According to the ministry, due to the threat of hostilities, more than 100 thousand museum exhibits have already been evacuated from the front-line regions..

At the same time, Ukraine is preparing its own pavilion at the Biennale with the project “Security Guarantees”. The central element of the exhibition will be the sculpture “Origami Deer” by artist Zhanna Kadyrova, which is already traveling around European capitals before the opening of the exhibition.