[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/ANE_israel.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe activist group Art Not Genocide Alliance released an open letter this week demanding that the Venice Biennale prevent Israel from participating in this year\u2019s exhibition. The letter has been signed by nearly 200 artists, curators, and arts workers associated with this year\u2019s edition of the Biennale.<\/p>\n
\n\tAmong the signatories to the letter are curators Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo and Rasha Salti, two members of the team tasked with realizing the vision of the late curator Koyo Kouoh. Kouoh died last May just months after being announced as the curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale. \u00a0There are also dozens of artists included in the main exhibition, \u201cIn Minor Keys,\u201d who signed the letter, as well as artists or curators associated with the pavilions of Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Peru, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and other countries. Twelve artists and curators from other pavilions have signed the letter anonymously, fearing \u201cpossible physical, political, or legal harms from signing publicly,\u201d the letter explains. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe, the undersigned, stand together as artists, curators, and art workers in a collective refusal to allow you to platform the Israeli state as it commits genocide,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cWe do this in support of our fellow artists and cultural workers in Palestine, in solidarity with Palestine, and in profound hope of an end to Zionist genocide and ongoing apartheid, and the rebirth of a free Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe letter continues, \u201cIn 2024, the outrage against the inclusion of a genocidal state in the art Biennale was so strong that the Israel pavilion was forced to close. As we reach an appalling anniversary\u2014two and a half years of open genocide against Palestine\u2014and 77 years after the Nakba, the Israeli state once again seeks the legitimation of the Biennale to masquerade as a creator instead of a destroyer of life and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tANGA released a similar letter in 2024 ahead of that year\u2019s Biennale, which eventually gained over 20,000 signatories. In April of that year, artist Ruth Patir, who was chosen to represent Israel, announced that she would open her exhibtion for Israel\u2019s pavilion until \u201ca cease-fire and hostage release agreement\u201d was reached between Israel and Hamas. That did not happen before the closure of the exhibition that November, and Israel\u2019s pavilion never opened. There were still protests outside of the pavilion during the Biennale\u2019s professional preview days and public opening in April 2024.<\/p>\n
\n\tIsrael\u2019s contribution to this year\u2019s Biennale will not take place in its pavilion in the Giardini\u2014which it said is under renovation\u2014but in the Arsenale, the Biennale\u2019s other main venue. Speaking by phone with ARTnews<\/em>, Haifa-based artist Belu-Simion Fainaru, who is set to represent Israel, said that he actually sees the new venue as a positive shift, adding that he\u2019s glad to be showing alongside countries like the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, which all have their pavilions in the Arsenale.<\/p>\n \n\tThe participation of Israel has not been the only controversy facing the Biennale. Earlier this month, Russia announced that it was planning to reopen the Russia Pavilion for the first time since the country\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n \n\tThe move has drawn widespread outrage, with over 8,500 people signing another open letter calling on the Biennale\u2019s top brass to \u201caddress the implications\u201d of Russia\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Biennale has so far rallied against those protesting the participation of Russia and Israel, saying publicly that it rejects \u201cany form of exclusion or censorship of culture and art.\u201d The organization added that the exhibition should remain \u201ca place of dialogue, openness, and artistic freedom,\u201d even as geopolitical tensions persist.\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked earlier about Russia\u2019s participation, a Biennale representative told ARTnews<\/em>, \u201cAs a general premise, La Biennale di Venezia does not decide on national participation; countries themselves choose whether to take part.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat answer has done little to quell the controversy. Last week, 22 culture ministers signed a letter asking Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco to rethink Russia\u2019s involvement, warning that giving it such a visible cultural stage could make things seem \u201cnormal\u201d while the war in Ukraine is still ongoing.<\/p>\n \n\tEU officials have also weighed in. In a joint statement, tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen and culture commissioner Glenn Micallef said the move could put around \u20ac2 million in funding from the EU at risk, calling it out of step with the bloc\u2019s broader response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n \n\tThe participation of Russia, Israel, and Iran\u2014not to mention the US\u2014amid ongoing wars has raised serious questions about the Biennale\u2019s stated aim of being \u201cneutral.\u201d As ARTnews<\/em> senior editor Alex Greenberger wrote in an opinion column last week, no art exhibition can truly be \u201cneutral,\u201d and it is high time the Biennale develop ethics standards to facilitate such disputes, as other international events, like the Olympics, have long had.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/israel-venice-biennale-open-letter-anga-1234777606\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/ANE_israel.jpg?w=1024″] The activist group Art Not Genocide Alliance released an open letter this week demanding that the Venice Biennale prevent Israel from participating in this year\u2019s exhibition. The letter has been signed by nearly 200 artists, curators, and arts workers associated with this year\u2019s edition of the Biennale. Among the signatories to the […]<\/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-1830881","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\/1830881","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=1830881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1830881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1830881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1830881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}