Italian Culture Minister, Venice Biennale Officials Respond to Call to Bar Israel from Event

Italian culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano on February 27 announced that Israel will be allowed to participate in the Sixtieth Venice Biennale, to take place April 20–November 24. Sangiuliano issued astatementon the matter after more than 14,500 artists, curators, and cultural workers signed anopen letterdemanding that the Biennale exclude the Israeli pavilion this year on the grounds that Israel, inkillingmore than 29,000 Palestinians in retaliation for the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack thatkilled1,200 Israelis and saw an additional 250 taken hostage, is committing genocide.

The missive additionally pointed to the exclusion of South Africa from the Biennale between 1968 and 1993, while the country’s policy of apartheid was in place (Israel’s status as an apartheid state remainshotly contested). The letter further noted that the Biennale’s organizers had spoken up in support of Ukraine after Russia attacked it in 2022, ousting Russia from the event (the country will not participate this year, either), but remained “silent about Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians.”

“The diktat of those who think they are the holders of the truth and, with arrogance and hatred, think they can threaten the freedom of thought and of creative expression in a democratic, free nation like Italy is unacceptable and shameful,” said Sangiuliano in his statement.

“Israel not only has the right to express its art, but it has the duty to bear witness of its people precisely at a time like this when it has been attacked in cold blood by merciless terrorists,” he continued. “My deepest solidarity and closeness goes to the State of Israel, its artists, and all its citizens.”

The Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), the newly formed entity that published the open letter demanding Israel’s exclusion from the Biennale, responded with its ownstatement, in which it asserted that “the Biennale cannot be a ‘space of freedom, meeting, and dialogue’ when providing a platform for Israel as its apartheid state commits genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

The number of signatories to the letter climbed above 18,000 today following the release of Sangiuliano’s statement. This afternoon, the organizers of the Biennale issued a statement on the matter.

“With regard to the participation in the International Art Exhibition of the Countries represented in the pavilions of the Giardini, the Arsenale and in the city of Venice, La Biennale di Venezia would like to specify that all countries recognized by the Italian Republic may autonomously request to participate officially,” wrote the officials. “Consequently, La Biennale may not take into consideration any petition or call to exclude the participation of Israel or Iran in the coming 60th International Art Exhibition.”The organizers further asserted that the “decision to close the Russian Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition in 2022 was made by the commissioner and the curator designated by the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, which announced that it would not participate in the coming 60th International Art Exhibition.”

Noting that Palestinian artists were participating in the Biennale’s main exhibition “Foreigners Everywhere,” the officials also pointed out that one of the approved collateral events attending the Biennale also featured Palestinian artists.