[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1240085264.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe European Union said it could pull funding to the Venice Biennale if the show goes through with hosting Russia, adding to mounting furor over plans by the country to show at the world\u2019s most important art exhibition for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\n\tHenna Virkkunen and Glenn Micallef, respectively the EU\u2019s commissioners for technology and culture, said in a joint statement that staging the Russian Pavilion ran aground of the EU\u2019s stance on the country, whose war in Ukraine is still ongoing.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis decision by the Fondazione Biennale is not compatible with the EU\u2019s collective response to Russia\u2019s brutal aggression,\u201d they wrote. \u201cShould the Fondazione Biennale go forward with its decision to allow Russia\u2019s participation, we will examine further action, including the suspension or termination of an ongoing EU grant to the Biennale Foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThey called Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine \u201cillegal\u201d and said, \u201cCulture promotes and safeguards democratic values, fosters open dialogue, diversity and freedom of expression, and should never be used as a platform for propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n
ARTnews<\/em> has reached out to the Biennale for comment. It\u2019s not clear how much money the EU provides to the Venice Biennale.<\/p>\n \n\tQueried about the Russian Pavilion on Monday, the Biennale directed ARTnews<\/em> to a statement from last week in which the exhibition allows any country recognized by Italy to have a pavilion and that the show \u201crejects any form of exclusion or censorship of culture and art.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThis is the first time Russia has participated in the Biennale since 2019. In 2022, the pavilion closed because its curator and artists made the decision to shutter their show. In 2024, Russia ceded its pavilion to Bolivia, which staged an exhibition of its own there.<\/p>\n \n\tThe 2022 Biennale appeared to feature a show of support for Ukraine. That edition featured a special pro-Ukraine showing staged in the Giardini, one of the Biennale\u2019s main venues. \u201cThe aim of this project is giving a voice to artists and the art community of Ukraine as well as other countries in solidarity with the people of Ukraine in the aftermath of the brutal invasion by the Russian government, and to create a space for debate, conversation and support to Ukrainian culture,\u201d the Biennale said at the time.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Biennale has yet to take any stance on Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine this time around, and the issue of whether or not the Biennale really is a nonpartisan entity has become central to a mass outcry from curators, artists, and institutions calling for Russia\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe claim that \u2018culture is above politics\u2019 is never neutral,\u201d reads one open letter regarding the Russian Pavilion that now has more than 6,000 signatures. \u201cIn the case of contemporary Russia, this formula has become a political instrument used to promote aggression and advance state agendas while disguising them behind the language of cultural exchange and dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tUkraine and Lithuania have also bitterly called on the Biennale to drop Russia\u2019s participation, which allows the nation to compete for one of the Biennale\u2019s main prizes, the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.<\/p>\n \n\tOne Venice art space has even weighed in on the matter. The PinchukArtCentre, a space run by Ukrainian collector Victor Pinchuk that regularly stages events with the Biennale\u2019s blessing, said this week that it was \u201cappalled\u201d by the decision to allow Russia in this time.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cInaction does not equal neutrality,\u201d wrote the PinchukArtCentre. \u201cWe therefore call upon La Biennale di Venezia to take a clear position and refuse the participation of the Russian Federation, thereby condemning the illegal war of aggression it continues to wage against Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/venice-biennale-russian-pavilion-eu-threatens-funding-1234776850\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1240085264.jpg?w=1024″] The European Union said it could pull funding to the Venice Biennale if the show goes through with hosting Russia, adding to mounting furor over plans by the country to show at the world\u2019s most important art exhibition for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Henna Virkkunen and Glenn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1818857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1818857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1818857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1818857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1818857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}