The Venice Art Biennale, which takes place every two years, has historically maintained that art transcends politics.
But since the event is also called the “Olympics of the art world” – in which national pavilions act as official, state-sponsored platforms showcasing contemporary art – global politics inevitably get entangled in the conversation.
A posthumous exhibition by Koyo Kuoh
Held from 9 May to 22 November, this year’s event has a list of 100 national participants, with seven countries participating for the first time: Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Nauru, Qatar, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Vietnam.
National entries coincide with the Biennale’s main international art exhibition, titled “In Minor Keys”, which was curated by the late Cameroon-born artistic director Koyo Kouh, who died of cancer in May 2025 at the age of 57.
Kouh, the first African woman chosen to curate the prestigious show, had already developed her curatorial project before her sudden death. The Biennale decided to hold its exhibition posthumously, with 111 invited participants.
“in minor keys” focuses on marginalized or neglected voices. In her concept, Kuh defines a restorative form of resistance, which demands careful listening amidst the current chaos.
“The minor keys reject orchestral bombast and goose-stepping military marches and come alive in quiet tones, lower frequencies, humming, the solace of poetry,” Kuh wrote in his introductory text to the exhibition. “Although often lost in the disconcerting noise of the current chaos engulfing the world, the music continues.”
EU threatens to cut funding over Russia’s involvement
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the country’s artists and curators voluntarily withdrew from the event.
Now, Russia’s return to the exhibition in 2026 has created friction between Italian institutions and the EU; There is deep disagreement on this issue even within Italy’s far-right government.
In a formal warning addressed to the President of the Venice Biennale, The European Commission has asked the Italian cultural institute to reconsider its decision to allow Russia to participate ahead of the Biennale’s opening, threatening to suspend its €2 million ($2.3 million) funding for the event.
While Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government opposed Moscow’s presence at the Biennale, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini described threats to cut EU funding as “obscene blackmail” against “one of the world’s most important and free cultural bodies.”
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in March that Russia’s pavilion would be closed if it continued to engage in propaganda, but he also said the Biennale should remain a forum for dialogue.
Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Biennale Foundation, insisted on keeping the Biennale “open to everyone. I am not close to anyone,” he told the Italian newspaper. La Repubblica. “There will be Russia, Iran, Israel. There will be Ukraine and Belarus. Everyone.”
The commissioner of the Russian pavilion, Anastasia Karneeva, is the daughter of former Federal Security Service (FSB) general – and current deputy chief executive of Russian state-owned defense contractor Rostec – Nikolai Volobuev.
Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has condemned the Russian show: “Participating in the Biennale with an apolitical program is an attempt to burnish Russia’s image and make the world forget the victims of Russian terror,” she told DW.
The Italian government should remove representatives of Putin’s Russia from the pavilion, Tolokonnikova suggested, “and instead present the actions of Russian political prisoners who are now languishing in penal colonies because they spoke out against Russia’s criminal war in Ukraine.”
Prestigious feminist art group will travel to the Biennale to stage a protest.
South Africa’s pavilion will remain empty after ‘divisive’ work is blocked!
South African contemporary artist Gabriel Goliath was selected to represent his home country at the Biennale.
Their performance included a tribute to the Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed during an Israeli airstrike in October 2023.
But South Africa’s Culture Minister Guyton McKenzie requested several edits to the work which he described as “highly divisive”.
After refusing to make changes, Goliath was barred from the pavilion, which will remain vacant as the South African government has not named a replacement for the show following its sudden cancellation in January.
A video installation version of Goliath’s project will be shown at another location in Venice that is not part of the Biennale. Goliath is suing her country’s culture minister.
Australia canceled and then rehired its artist
Similarly, Australia faced opposition from the art community after removing its commissioned duo, artist Khaled Sababi and curator Michael Dagostino, due to political concerns.
Right-wing politicians have accused the Lebanon-born artist, who moved to Australia when he was 12, of anti-Semitism. Sabsabi’s work often deals with his traumatic experience of the civil war, as well as Arab immigrant identity and Islamophobia.
Following calls for a boycott and resignation, as well as an independent review by an outside body, the controversial decision to remove Sabsabi and Dagostino was reversed.
Call for ousting Israel
Nearly 200 artists, curators and activists attending the 2026 Venice Biennale have signed a letter organized by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) calling for Israel to be banned from the show.
A second letter signed by more than 70 artists and curators participating in the main exhibition, Similarly there has been a call to exclude Israel, but the call has been expanded to include all “existing regimes that commit war crimes”, including Russia and the US.
Another point of criticism in the papers is that the Biennale is offering Israel a space in the Arsenale, the central industrial complex where Koyo Kouh’s main exhibition is also held, as the Israeli pavilion in the Giardini section is currently closed for renovation.
Romanian-born sculptor Bellu-Simian Fainaru, who lives and works in Haifa, still plans to participate in international art shows. “As an artist, I do not support cultural boycotts,” Fainaru said in a statement. “I believe in dialogue and exchange, especially in challenging times.”
At the last biennale in 2024, artist Ruth Patir closed her exhibition in the Israeli pavilion to the public on the opening day, saying she would reopen it only after a ceasefire was established in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Biennale has never had a Palestinian national pavilion because only countries officially recognized by Italy can participate. A side exhibition titled “Gaza – No Words” will be held in the Italian city throughout the Biennale.
‘Ruined’: German pavilion features late artists
Less controversially, the Germany show, titled “Ruin”, is inspired by research on the GDR and the transition period after reunification in 1990.
German installation artist Heinrich Naumann, who died of cancer in February at the age of 41, had completed his contributions to the German exhibition before his sudden death. “Ruin” will also include works by Vietnamese-born Berlin artist Sung Tieu.
Patti Smith, Brian Eno, FKA Twigs to represent the Vatican
The 12th-century Saint Hildegard of Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess who is celebrated today as a pioneer in science, ecology, music and feminist theology, will inspire a series of sound compositions for a Vatican exhibition titled “The Year is the Eye of the Soul.”
It features an all-star roster of 24 artists, including Brian Eno, Patti Smith, FKA Twigs, and many more.
Edited by: Sarah Huckle