[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Padiglione-Centrale_Giardini_Photo-by-Francesco-Galli.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tLast week, the Venice Biennale announced that Iran had dropped out of the exhibition. Now, it appears, that report was incorrect.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Tuesday, Aydin Mahdizadeh Tehrani, the director-general of visual arts at the Iranian ministry of culture and Islamic guidance told the Iran Students News Agency that it still plans to participate.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIran never withdrew from participating in the Venice Biennale,\u201d Tehrani said, as translated by Google Translate. \u201cIncidentally, we had the initial agreement to participate in Venice and we are still in consultation. We have submitted a plan to participate in the Biennale as an exhibition, and we will probably receive a\u00a0receive a response in the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn an extensive Q&A with ISNA, Tehrani said he was confused by the Biennale organizers\u2019 statement after it never gave them a letter of withdrawal, nor announced that they weren\u2019t participating. He said further that Iran\u2019s organizers were in conversations with the Biennale to resolve several issues related to sanctions against Iran, high financial costs of renting a space for the pavilion, the lack of permanent Iranian cultural infrastructure in Italy, and the ongoing war with Israel and the US. While those issues are still in the process of being resolved, the ministry has continued to work on the pavilion.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe said further that the ministry sent a a letter to the Biennale on May 10 stating that it \u201cinsists\u201d the Iranian Pavilion be opened even if competing for Golden Lions is no longer possible. The country still plans to mount \u201ca completely new and different project \u2026 based on new technology and approaches\u201d in its pavilion, according to Tehrani.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe are now waiting for the final answer, and I think we will finally receive a definitive answer within the next day or two,\u201d Tehrani said. \u201cOur mindset and plan is to definitely be in Venice this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTehrani suggested that proposed exhibition may travel after its time in Venice to other European cities. While Tehrani was somewhat cagey on what form exactly the proposed Iranian Pavilion, the entire interview is worth the read for a close look at how he views arts within Iran.<\/p>\n
\n\tMeawhile, a group purporting to represent the Iran Pavilion announced last week the Hyperstitional Pavilion of Iran, with the exhibition, \u201cHulul: On Incarnation and\u00a0Incantation,\u201d which said it was being staged on behalf of Iranian artists and curators at risk. Curated by \u00a0Pouya Jafari\u00a0and\u00a0Nazli Jan Parvar, the pavilion features work by Iranian artists Real Iran,\u00a0Dast Dastan,\u00a0Zendan-e Eskandar,\u00a0Mogh Kouh, and\u00a0Dorna. The pavilion is being facilitated by Perpetuum Mobile, a Finland-based arts nonprofit, and, according to a press release, is located in the Giardini.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHulul<\/em>\u00a0proposes a different mode of presence: not as a representation of a state, but as a continuous process of becoming,\u201d the press release reads. \u201cHulul: On Incarnation and Incantation<\/em>\u00a0offers neither a unified image nor a singular narrative. Instead, it proposes a space in which Iran\u2019s multiplicities, historical, imagined and dispersed, coexist and recombine. What emerges is a porous and dynamic condition: a pavilion that does not stand in Venice, but resonates through it, carrying with it the voices of an ancient yet civilization in becoming.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHulul\u201d remains unlisted on the Biennale\u2019s official website, and it seems unclear what, if any, connection there is officially to the state of Iran.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/iran-venice-biennale-withdrawal-report-1234785280\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Padiglione-Centrale_Giardini_Photo-by-Francesco-Galli.jpg?w=1024″] Last week, the Venice Biennale announced that Iran had dropped out of the exhibition. Now, it appears, that report was incorrect. On Tuesday, Aydin Mahdizadeh Tehrani, the director-general of visual arts at the Iranian ministry of culture and Islamic guidance told the Iran Students News Agency that it still plans to participate. […]<\/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-1933652","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\/1933652","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=1933652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1933652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1933652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1933652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}