Strike Rocks Venice Biennale Ahead of Public Opening as Pavilions Close
10May 9, 2026
Thousands of marchers flooded the thoroughfares of Venice to protest the presence of Israel at theVenice Biennale, with many national pavilions shuttering in solidarity. TheNew York Timesreported that the pavilions belonging to Austria, Belgium, Egypt, Japan, the Netherlands, and South Korea closed. Austria’s pavilion bore a sign noting that some of its team members had chosen to participate in the strike; signs on other pavilions read “We Stand with Palestine.”
Artnewsreported that that the pavilions belonging to Cyprus, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine also closed fully or partially. According toHyperallergic, twenty-seven of the Biennale’s one hundred national pavilions were affected.
The Israeli pavilion remained closed as well, for the opening of its exhibition of work by Belu-Simion Fainaru, which was taking place inside. Armed police stood outside, clashing at one point with protesters, the Times reported.
The Times noted that the main exhibition, the Koyo Kouoh–curated “In Minor Keys,” remained open in the morning, but that some artists exhibiting in the Arsenale had attached Palestinian flags or pro-Palestine signs to their works. Hyperallergic wrote that the Arsenale was shut tight by late afternoon, with squads of riot police outside.
The strike, which is set to last twenty-four hours, was organized by the international cultural activist organization Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), in conjunction with Italian activist gropup’s Biennalocene, Mi Riconosci?, Sale Docks, and Vogliamo Tutt’altro. According to Artnews, ANGA announced that the action was the largest of its kind in the Biennale’s history.
The protests come after a stormy several months for the Biennale, during which artists, curators, and cultural workers—including many participating in the event—have repeatedly called for Israel and Russia to be excluded from the event, for their sustained attacks on Gaza and Ukraine, respectively. Some have called for the US to be ejected as well, for its warmongering. In recent weeks, Italy’s culture minister said he would boycott the event’s opening over Russia’s participation, while the international prize jury handpicked by Kouoh before her untimely death announced that they would not consider for the prestigious Golden Lions artists or pavilions representing countries whose leaders had been accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Just days after issuing a statement to that effect, the jury resigned en masse. The Biennale has been the stage for numerous protests already since its May 5 preview opening, with dissident Russian artist collective Pussy Riot among the demonstrators.
Biennale president Pietroangelo Buttafuoco in a statement earlier this week said the event should be a place “where the world comes together” and that all should be welcome rather than subject to censorship.
The strike’s organizing entities took a different tone. “No artist or cultural worker should be asked to share a platform with a state perpetrating genocide,” they said in a joint statement.