The European Commission has warned that it will cut funding for the Venice Biennale and suspend a €2 million grant if organizers go ahead with plans to include Russia.
This is reported by The Guardian.
The commission noted that any breach of ethical standards by the festival would be considered a breach of contract, leading to the suspension of the agreement for 2 million euros.
Commission spokesman Thomas Rainier said he could not predict the decision of EU lawyers on whether a contract had been breached, but stressed that the decision to include Russia was not in line with European values and ethical standards.
“The Commission condemns the decision of the Biennale Foundation to allow Russia to participate in the 2026 Biennale art exhibition… After all, culture in Europe should promote and defend democratic values. It should promote open dialogue, diversity and freedom of speech. In modern Russia, these values are currently not respected,” he told reporters.
Earlier, the Italian Ministry of Culture stated that the decision on Russia's participation in the 61st Venice Biennale was made independently by the Biennale Foundation, despite the government's position that was against it. The Italian government noted that Rome continues to cooperate with the Ukrainian side to restore cultural heritage.
The heads of the ministries of culture and foreign affairs of 22 countries have signed a joint protest against Russia's participation in the 2026 Venice Biennale. The letter was addressed to the president of the exhibition, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, and the board of the institution, and was also handed over to the Minister of Culture of Italy, Alessandro Giuli.
Russia at the Venice Biennale
Russia has been a regular participant in the Venice Biennale, having established its pavilion in 1914. However, its exhibition at the 59th Biennale in 2022 was cancelled on February 27 — a few days after the invasion.
In 2024, the Venice Biennale was again held without Russia's participation, but the country's pavilion hosted an exhibition of artists from South America, organized by the Ministry of Culture, Decolonization and Depatriarchalization of Bolivia.
On March 2, Russia's representative for international cultural exchanges and former Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoy confirmed to ArtNews that Russia will reopen its national pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2026.
On March 4, the organizers of the Venice Biennale announced the lists of participants who will open national pavilions. Among them is Russia, which has not participated since 2022.
The Russian national pavilion will be called The Tree Is Rooted In the Sky . The commissioner will be Anastasia Karneyeva , who was appointed to this position in 2021 for a term of 8 years. The exhibition will be located in the Giardini location.
How Ukraine is reacting
The participation of Russian artists in the biennale has sparked criticism and protest from the Ukrainian community and international cultural organizations, as it is perceived as legitimizing Russia's actions in Ukraine.
According to Ksenia Malikh , co-curator of the Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the organizers of the biennale explained that they do not make political decisions regarding the participation of states. She suggests that the Russian side could have taken advantage of procedural opportunities.
On March 7, cultural scholar Bozena Pelenska published a registered petition to the president of the Venice Biennale asking him to consider the consequences of Russia's announced participation in the upcoming 61st International Art Exhibition and to reaffirm the ethical principles formulated by the institution itself in 2022.
On March 8, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Tetyana Berezhna called on the organizers of the Venice Biennale to reconsider the decision to return Russia to participate in the event and maintain the position demonstrated in previous years.
He also called for the cancellation of Russia's participation in the PinchukArtCentre, which is this year a participant in the official parallel program of La Biennale di Venezia. The institution recalled a quote by Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage, which he said on May 25, 2022: “When the guns speak, the muses are not silent.”
The PinchukArtCentre is convinced that the inaction of the Biennale team does not equal neutrality, and therefore calls on the exhibition organizers to take a clear position and condemn Russia's war by denying the country participation.