[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kazakhstan-Pavilion-Venice-Biennale-2026-\ufe0fPhotos-by-Luca-Girardini-2026Courtesy-of-AA-Worldwide3.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tControversy has once again reached the Venice Biennale, this time at the Kazakhstan pavilion, where artist \u00c4sel Kadyrhanova\u2019s presentation was reportedly dismantled prior to the exhibition\u2019s opening. The fallout has left fractures within the Kazakhstani art community and among the pavilion\u2019s organizers in Venice, with conflicting accounts emerging over who ordered the work\u2019s removal and why.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe news emerged in a May 21 open letter signed by prominent members of the Kazakhstani art community and published on e-flux<\/em>. The letter alleges that \u00c4sel Kadyrhanova\u2019s multimedia installation Machine<\/em> (2013)\u2014a meditation on Stalin-era repression in Kazakhstan\u2014was dismantled on May 5 on the orders of the nation\u2019s Ministry of Culture, or by individuals acting on behalf of the pavilion\u2019s organizers, after negotiations between Kadyrhanova and the pavilion\u2019s curator, Syrlybek Bekbota, failed.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a May 11 article published by the Kazakh media outlet Vlast<\/em>, titled \u201cKazakhstan\u2019s Ministry Removes Kadyrkhanova\u2019s Work from the Venice Biennale,\u201d representatives of the Museo Storico Navale di Venezia, the Italian Navy\u2013affiliated museum hosting the exhibition, denied any role in the work\u2019s removal. D\u2019Uva, the company that manages the museum, told Vlast<\/em> that it \u201cdid not impose any specific restriction concerning [Machine<\/em>]\u2026nor did it ever request its removal or non-exhibition.\u201d D\u2019Uva said that it had not received any instructions or requests regarding the display of Kadyrhanova\u2019s work from either Difesa Servizi S.p.A., which oversees properties belonging to the Italian Ministry of Defense, or from the Italian Navy.<\/p>\n \n\tA copy of the contract signed on February 2 by D\u2019Uva and a representative of the Kazakhstan pavilion team was reviewed by ARTnews<\/em>. It includes a stipulation prohibiting the exhibition of artworks deemed \u201cpolitical, ideological,\u201d or \u201cpropagandistic\u201d in nature, while also reserving D\u2019Uva\u2019s right to require the \u201camendment, removal or non-exhibition of any content\u201d considered incompatible with the \u201crelevant contractual framework.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the curator, Bekbota, the pavilion team explored several alternatives with Kadyrhanova that would have preserved the work\u2019s conceit while allowing it to remain on view. One proposal involved displaying documents referencing Stalin upside down, which Bekbota argued could have given the installation \u201ca new level of meaning.\u201d He contends, however, that Kadyrhanova later restored the work to its original presentation\u2014with all text fully legible\u2014despite acknowledging the financial, legal, and organizational risks the pavilion could face if found in breach of contract.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement posted to Facebook, Bekbota said that, in light of these constraints, he ultimately made the decision to dismantle Machine<\/em> in its original form. \u201cAs a curator, I was obliged to consider not only the fate of a single work, but also the functioning of the entire pavilion, the participation of all the artists, and my responsibility to the institutions that supported the project,\u201d Bekbota wrote. \u201cTherefore, I personally made the decision to dismantle the \u2018Machine\u2019 installation in its original form. And I take full responsibility for this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe also stated that concerns over the museum\u2019s \u201csensitivity\u201d to political content had been raised in meetings with D\u2019Uva representatives, including a request not to mention Stalin directly.<\/p>\n \n\tThe project\u2019s co-commissioner, Danagul Tolepbay, meanwhile, described D\u2019Uva\u2019s statement to Vlast<\/em> as \u201centirely inaccurate,\u201d telling ARTnews<\/em> that in two separate Zoom calls a representative of the company explicitly requested the removal of any mention of Stalin after reviewing the exhibition\u2019s contents. She also denounced accusations of censorship directed at Kazakhstan\u2019s Ministry of Culture as \u201cshameful,\u201d noting that the ministry had commissioned the work, and previously exhibited it at the Kasteyev Museum and in London. Tolepbay expressed fears that the pavilion itself was vulnerable to shuttering between now and the end of the Biennale in November. <\/p>\n \n\tFollowing the Vlast<\/em> report, D\u2019Uva has sought to distance itself from the controversy, telling the press that any directives to remove Machine<\/em> were issued by a specialist who was not authorized to make such decisions. ARTnews<\/em> has contacted company head Ilaria D\u2019Uva for comment.<\/p>\n \n\tKadyrhanova was one of nine Kazakh artists featured in the exhibition \u201cQo\u00f1yr: The Archive of Silence\u201d, which \u201ccenters the twentieth-century evolution of music in Kazakhstan from predominantly major to minor tonalities, a transformation that closely reflects the country\u2019s turbulent modern history,\u201d according to a press release. The third official national presentation by Kazakhstan at the Venice Biennale, it also marks the first time a Central Asian nation selected its pavilion project through an open call.<\/p>\n \n\tKadyrhanova\u2019s contribution confronted the Soviet occupation of Kazakhstan, which, having ended just over 30 years ago, continues to shape the country\u2019s sociopolitical memory. During that period, more than one million Kazakhs died in famine, while roughly two million people were imprisoned or deported to gulags on politically motivated charges. Machine<\/em> comprised three elements: a 1930s typewriter, copies of Soviet-era arrest warrants sourced from archival records, and a red thread connecting the typewriter\u2019s keys to the documents.<\/p>\n \n\tThe signatories of the e-flux<\/em> letter characterized the removal as censorship, arguing that, in the absence of a clear legal basis, it was incompatible with constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and creativity. They have demanded an apology from the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan by May 31, the memorial day for victims of political repression and famine in Kazakhstan; the reinstatement of the work, with any associated costs covered; and full documented transparency regarding the decision, including testimony identifying from whom the orders originated.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement to ARTnews<\/em>, Kadyrhanova reiterated the letter\u2019s claim that the work had been removed at the direction of Kazakhstan\u2019s Ministry of Culture. \u201cKazakhstan pavilion\u2019s explanations are quite vague, and I believe they are going to still insist the reason was some undisclosed restrictions imposed by Museo Storico Navale despite that the museum has already denied any involvement in the removal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\tIn the Facebook statement, Bekbota described the pavilion as having faced complications from the early planning stages. Initially intended for the Palazzo Pisani Conservatory, the exhibition was relocated to the Museo Storico Navale due to concerns about the installation\u2019s sound elements. <\/p>\n \n\tBekbota described Kazakhstan\u2019s participation in the Biennale as a \u201cformative stage\u201d and emphasized the need for a \u201cprofessional dialogue\u201d between artists, curators, and arts institutions. He concluded by expressing regret that, in a view shared by Tolepbay, the controversy had overshadowed the achievement of the Kazakhstani artists in reaching contemporary art\u2019s most vaunted venue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/kazakhstan-pavilion-venice-biennale-censorship-open-letter-1234786973\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kazakhstan-Pavilion-Venice-Biennale-2026-\ufe0fPhotos-by-Luca-Girardini-2026Courtesy-of-AA-Worldwide3.jpg?w=1024″] Controversy has once again reached the Venice Biennale, this time at the Kazakhstan pavilion, where artist \u00c4sel Kadyrhanova\u2019s presentation was reportedly dismantled prior to the exhibition\u2019s opening. The fallout has left fractures within the Kazakhstani art community and among the pavilion\u2019s organizers in Venice, with conflicting accounts emerging over who ordered 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-1955742","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\/1955742","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=1955742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1955742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1955742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1955742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}