The Venice Biennale’s preview unfolded Tuesday in the Giardini with multiple, sharply different responses to the same backdrop: war. Just days after the Biennale’s jury resigned over the participation of Israel and Russia, the show’s traditional boundary between art and geopolitics appeared thin as artists, protesters and participants brought current conflicts directly onto the exhibition grounds.
At the center of the unrest, a Ukrainian presence sat beside an event that one observer described as festive: Ukrainian artists stood by a truck that brought a statue of an origami deer from the war-ravaged eastern front, while nearby a handful of participants in the Russian Pavilion danced to house music played by an Argentine DJ.
The day’s tension also spilled into grief and protest. A group of Palestinians marched through the Giardini wearing the names of artists who have been killed in Gaza, with more demonstrations expected as the preview week continued.
Biennale officials still had their curated work to present, but even the structure itself faced questions about how the exhibition treats national representation. “I think what has been contested very much is the existence of the nation state within the space of the exhibition,” said Marie Helene Pereira, one of the five curators of the main exhibition “In Minor Keys,” who has taken up the mantle of the late curator Koyo Kouoh.
Pereira said the Biennale was forced to confront how that structure can produce friction “especially in the midst of the political chaos (in which) we find ourselves,” and she said it was important to “rethink structure” and “rethink institutions” in a way that “allows for them to cater more to artists and artmaking.” She added that “didn’t mean that art should be devoid of politics.”
The jury resignation left the Biennale without a jury of peers. Without that jury, there would be no Golden Lions for best national pavilion or best participant in the main curated exhibition, and a prestigious prize tied to the show’s “Olympics of art” reputation was replaced with a public choice system. Visitors at both Giardini and Arsenale will choose two winners for best national participant and best main show participant, with awards to be given on Nov. 22, the closing day of the Biennale.
The absence of jury prizes fed into the debate inside the event about what the Biennale’s professional standards are supposed to mean when politics intrude. Ukrainian Pavilion co-curator Ksenia Malykh said the lack of professionally awarded prizes damaged the Biennale, adding: “It’s an important moment. If the prize is given by the public, it’s as if the Biennale came to Eurovision. It’s not a professional institution after that.”
War and participation also framed specific works and disputes inside the Giardini. Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadryova created “The Origami Deer” to take the place of a nuclear-capable Soviet fighter jet that had stood for years in a park in Pokrovsk in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Curators of the Ukrainian Pavilion, in the show’s case its third since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, had evacuated the Soviet jet from the park in 2024 when the front line was about 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.
Malykh said she had opposed the Biennale’s decision to allow Russia to open its pavilion, calling it “a false attempt to stay neutral.” “You can’t stay neutral in these times. You can’t be neutral when people are dying every day because of Russians,’’ Malykh said. She also said proponents of separating art from politics were using art “as a weapon in a hybrid war in Europe,” and she argued the goal of Russia’s participation was not about neutrality.
On Tuesday, participants in the Russian Pavilion were present during the preview period. The Russian Pavilion will only be open to visitors during previews that run through Friday and will not be open to the public after the Biennale opens for its 6 ½-month run on Saturday. The pavilion organized a series of performers for this week and had an open bar upstairs near a flowering tree, and the curators were not available for interviews.
The jury resignation that roiled the preview also had a specific condition. Before resigning, the jury had said it would not award prizes to countries whose leaders were under investigation by the International Court of Justice. The move isolated Russia and Israel. The Biennale’s official account, in the meantime, had placed a “place-saving entry” where the Russian text should have been, stating that Russia’s participation was “under review” at the time of publication.
Some participants and artists at the Biennale defended the idea that individual artists should not be treated differently because of nationality or passport. Israeli artist Belu-Simion Fainaru said he thought the jury’s decision was “a fair one,” and he said he “should be treated as an equal artist” and “should not be discriminated because of my race, that I am a Jew, and not because of my nationality or passport.” He said he had the right “to be evaluated” and described the Biennale as “a place where you can feel safe to create and do whatever you believe in.”