[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2263484697.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tVenice Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco said this week that he had no qualms about hosting the Russian Pavilion for the first time since the onset of the country\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe Biennale is independent; I\u2019d do it all over again for the Russian pavilion,\u201d Buttafuoco told the Italian publication Corriere della Sera<\/em> in a candid interview that touched on his politics and his views on how the Biennale should function with regard to geopolitics. \u201cWith us, art wins.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Biennale\u2019s choice to let Russia mount its pavilion was a particularly controversial one. It cost the Biennale a 2 million euro grant from the European Commission, a cabinet of the European Union that claimed the pavilion ran in defiance of international law. It also resulted in protests from other nations participating in the Biennale, along with many artists in the main exhibition, who also denounced the pavilions for the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n \n\tAmid the protests, the Biennale claimed it could not keep any country that is recognized as such by Italy from staging a pavilion. In March, ahead of the opening of the 2026 edition, the Biennale said it \u201crejects any form of exclusion or censorship of culture and art.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Russian Pavilion ended up allowing visitors only during the preview days; it is now closed to the public.<\/p>\n \n\tEven within Italy, Russia\u2019s pavilion proved polarizing. Alessandro Giuli, the Italian culture minister, said, \u201cPutin won at the Biennale.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Corriere della Sera<\/em> interview featured a new response from Buttafuoco to that remark: \u201cPutin didn\u2019t win, art did. The Biennale won not because of me, but because of the history of an institution that looks to the world and that, throughout its 131 years, even during many conflicts, has always welcomed everyone. It would have been impious to suspend an ancient precept of our civilization, that of the truce at the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe also addressed the European Commission\u2019s pulled grant, saying, \u201cIn all the formal and official acts, there is not a single comma that violates laws and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSince taking the helm at the Biennale three years ago, Buttafuoco\u2019s politics have been the matter of some scrutiny. \u201cI am not a fascist,\u201d he once said. \u201cI am something else.\u201d What that \u201csomething else\u201d might be has been confusing: He has spoken in support of Italian cultural identity, a core tenet of right-wing politics in the country, per the Guardian<\/em>, which labeled him \u201can eccentric type of conservative.\u201d Yet he has also critiqued conservatives on a host of issues, including the right to bear arms. Moreover, his conversion to Islam in 2015 alienated some right-wing politicians, including Giorgia Meloni, who is now the nation\u2019s Prime Minister and whose administration has since gone on to praise Buttafuoco.<\/p>\n \n\tAsked if he felt \u201cclose to the right wing\u201d today by Corriere della Sera<\/em>, Buttafuoco said, \u201cI have an identity, not a membership. Within the Biennale, I serve the institution, not my own personal beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tButtafuoco\u2019s interview came out during the start of the Venice Film Festival, and the occasion led the art Biennale to find a surprising supporter in Sergei Loznitsa, perhaps the most famous Ukrainian filmmaker working today.<\/p>\n \n\tLoznitsa, whose films have sharply critiqued Russia, said he would \u201cnever ever\u201d visit the Russian Pavilion, according to the Guardian<\/em>. But he also said the European Commission\u2019s termination of its grant to the Biennale had a problematic logic behind it. \u201cThis is a much more serious issue than whether there is a Russian pavilion in Venice or not,\u201d he said. \u201cCutting off funding to the Biennale is like a punishment in kindergarten.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/venice-biennale-president-russian-pavilion-response-1234796675\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2263484697.jpg?w=1024″] Venice Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco said this week that he had no qualms about hosting the Russian Pavilion for the first time since the onset of the country\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. \u201cThe Biennale is independent; I\u2019d do it all over again for the Russian pavilion,\u201d Buttafuoco told the Italian publication Corriere della […]<\/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-2125983","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\/2125983","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=2125983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2125983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2125983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2125983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}