{"id":1926491,"date":"2026-05-08T17:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1926491"},"modified":"2026-05-08T17:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:37:07","slug":"venice-biennale-pavilions-and-artists-strike-over-israel-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1926491","title":{"rendered":"Venice Biennale Pavilions and Artists Strike Over Israel Participation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThousands of demonstrators marched in the streets of Venice on the eve of the public opening of the Venice Biennale on Saturday in protest of Israel\u2019s presence in the show. The protest was organized by Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), an international group of artists, curators, writers, and cultural workers.<\/p>\n

\n\tBy the afternoon, the organizers had secured a lengthy list of national pavilions that would be shut down completely or in part for a 24-hour strike, including Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Korea, Lebanon, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine. They said it was the largest action of its kind in the history of the Biennale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIsrael has killed over 73,000 people in Gaza, with a further 10,000 missing,\u201d said the organizers in a press release. \u201cIt has systematically destroyed hospitals, schools, refugee camps, cultural institutions, and civilian infrastructure. Its leadership faces ICC arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Biennale knows this and it chooses to accommodate Israel anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!\u201d chanted protesters, alternating with musical selections like Macklemore\u2019s \u201cHind\u2019s Hall,\u201d Saint Levant\u2019s \u201cFrom Gaza With Love,\u201d and Shelat\u2019s \u201cLeva Palestina.\u201d A giant banner carried at the front of the march, nearly as wide as a broad Venice street, read \u201cno genocide pavilions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Protesters demonstrated against Israel\u2019s participation in the Venice Biennale while Israel is allowed to participate.<\/span>Brian Boucher\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cThe workers united will never be defeated,\u201d chanted the marchers, following up the classic with their own adaptation of it for the nonce: \u201cThe artists united will never be defeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAn organizer with ANGA said that demonstrators had come from Padua, Vicenza, and other cities to join the demonstration. ANGA released a statement on March 17, she announced at the demonstration, demanding that Israel be excluded from the Biennale. She said it had 236 signatories, including the organizers of 18 national pavilions, 111 artists, 38 curators, and 81 art workers. Signatories include international artists Sophia Al-Maria, Yto Barrada, Brian Eno, Lubaina Himid, Alfredo Jaar, Cauleen Smith, Gala Porras-Kim, Kemang Wa Lehulere, and curators Rasha Salti and Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo\u2014both part of the curatorial team of the main exhibition, \u201cIn Minor Keys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur demands have been ignored,\u201d she shouted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFlyers circulating around the Biennale grounds read, riffing on Thomas Mann\u2019s classic novel, \u201cNo death in Venice\u2014No to the genocide pavilion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rally began at 4:30 p.m. on Friday and made its way to the lagoon, where protesters waved Palestinian flags, No Kings banners and other signs in the shadow of the superyachts docked along the waterfront.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANGA organized the strike alongside Italian activist organizations Biennalocene, Mi Riconosci?, Sale Docks, and Vogliamo Tutt\u2019altro, which have long fought for better working conditions in the cultural sector, not least at the Biennale itself, as well as the starving of the public good in favor of military spending.<\/p>\n

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Protesters demonstrated against Israel\u2019s participation in the Venice Biennale while Israel is allowed to participate.<\/span>Brian Boucher<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cThere can be no business as usual while Palestinians continue to face mass killing, displacement, siege, and occupation,\u201d say press materials, \u201cand while cultural workers themselves are pushed into increasingly precarious conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSome artists present were wearing white T shirts printed with the Palestinian flag and the names of Palestinian artists who were unable to come to Venice, some because they are no longer alive. Nina Katchadourian, a signatory to ANGA\u2019s demands, wore a shirt bearing the name of Maria Mughari. \u201cShe was a 20-something art student,\u201d Katchadourian explained, \u201cand she was killed in a drone strike. She reminds me of a student of mine. To do this feels very meaningful, like a real point of contact.\u201d She showed me a photo of Mughari, pointing at the sky, adding, \u201cFrom that sky came what killed her.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Free-Palestine-banner.jpeg?w=1024″] Thousands of demonstrators marched in the streets of Venice on the eve of the public opening of the Venice Biennale on Saturday in protest of Israel\u2019s presence in the show. The protest was organized by Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), an international group of artists, curators, writers, and cultural workers. By 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-1926491","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\/1926491","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=1926491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}