Open Letter to the President of La Biennale di Venezia and the International Art Community

Dear President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco,

Dear Director Andrea del Mercato
Dear colleagues, artists, curators, and cultural workers,

We write to express our deep concern regarding the announced participation of the Russian Federation in the forthcoming 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

In March 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, La Biennale di Venezia issued an official statement expressing firm condemnation of the aggression and declaring that it would refuse collaboration with official delegations, institutions, or individuals connected to the Russian government while the situation persisted. This position established an important ethical commitment by one of the world’s leading cultural institutions.

Today, as Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, the announced presence of a Russian state pavilion raises urgent questions about how this principle is being upheld.

This war has also directly affected the cultural community. Ukrainian artists, writers, and cultural workers have been killed during Russia’s invasion while defending their country or as a result of attacks on civilian life. Cultural institutions, museums, archives, libraries, and heritage sites across Ukraine have been damaged, destroyed, and looted.

It is also symbolic that the “return” of the Russian Federation to the Venice Biennale was announced by Mikhail Shvydkoi, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cultural Cooperation. Shvydkoi declared that culture is above politics. The same Shvydkoi published an article in 2025 advocating the reinstatement of Soviet-style political censorship in the Russian Federation.

The claim that “culture is above politics” is never neutral. In the case of contemporary Russia, this formula has become a political instrument used to promote aggression and advance state agendas while disguising them behind the language of cultural exchange and dialogue.

The project presented for the Russian Pavilion lists Anastasia Karneeva as commissioner. Publicly available information indicates that Karneeva is the daughter of Nikolay Volobuev, a senior executive of the Russian state corporation Rostec and a former general of the Federal Security Service (FSB). Rostec is a state-owned defense conglomerate closely connected to Russia’s military-industrial complex. Karneeva has also been associated with the art business through the company Smart Art, which she co-founded with Ekaterina Vinokurova, the daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

These connections raise further questions about the nature of the pavilion’s representation and its relationship to structures of state power during an ongoing war.

Particularly troubling is the apparent appropriation of decolonial discourse within the announced program of the Russian Pavilion. The project reportedly foregrounds the “diverse traditions of Russia,” including artists connected to Indigenous and regional cultures. Yet many of these cultures belong to peoples whose histories have been shaped by colonization, repression, forced assimilation, and systematic Russification under both the Russian Empire and the Soviet state.

Many scholars, activists, and cultural figures view Russia’s war against Ukraine as part of a continuing imperial project marked by destruction, displacement, and attacks on cultural heritage. Within the Russian Federation itself, Indigenous representatives, regional activists, and cultural figures who address colonial histories or defend linguistic and cultural rights face growing repression. In this context, the use of Indigenous and regional cultural forms in an official state pavilion appropriates the language of decolonization, reducing it to a decorative gesture that ultimately serves the same imperial structures that have long suppressed these cultures and languages.

The Russian presentation at the Biennale also reportedly includes musicians from Latin America and Africa, whose presence appears intended to support the claim promoted by the Russian government that the Russian Federation is fighting “Western colonialism.” The inclusion in the program of DJ Diaki from Mali—a country terrorized by the infamous Wagner Group and other Russian mercenaries who have committed numerous crimes against humanity since 2021—appears particularly cynical.

For decades, the Venice Biennale has represented a space of artistic freedom, international dialogue, and cultural encounter. Venice itself—open to the lagoon and historically shaped by exchanges between cultures—symbolizes a place where art, ideas, and histories meet in openness.

Yet when a state currently engaged in a war of aggression appears within the framework of national representation, its presence inevitably carries political meaning that extends beyond artistic production. It risks normalizing what cannot be normalized.

We therefore call on the leadership of La Biennale di Venezia and the broader international art community to openly address the implications of this participation and to reaffirm the ethical principles that the institution itself articulated in 2022.

The Biennale should remain a place where art does not conceal or concede to violence, but illuminates truth, memory, and responsibility—and resists any attempt to instrumentalize culture in the service of dictatorship, imperial domination, and oppression.

We invite artists, curators, scholars, and cultural workers around the world to join this conversation and to stand in solidarity with those whose lives, cultures, and histories are threatened by war.

 

Pina Picierno, vice-president of the European Parliament, Italy

Garry Kasparov. Political activist, former World Chess Champion, USA

Dr. Timothy Garton Ash. Professor, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza. Chair. TBA21, Venice, Madrid.

Hanna Wroblewska. Art Historian, Curator, Commissioner of Polish Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2010-2021; Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland 2024-2025, Warsaw, Poland.

Filippo Sensi, senatore, Partito Democratico Italia

Carlo Calenda, senatore, Azione, Italy

Anne-Solène Rolland. General Director, Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Paris, France.

Christopher Rennard (Lord Rennard), House of Lords, UK.

Éric de Chassey, Directeur Beaux-Arts de Paris, France

Viktor Yushchenko, the third President of Ukraine

Dr. Carmen Claudín. Senior Non-resident Fellow CIDOB, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, Barcelona, Spain.

Robert H. Serry.  The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process,  the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority from 2007 - 2015. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Nadya Tolokonnikova, artist, Pussy Riot, USA

Edward Lucas, writer, journalist, politician, London, UK

Gerard Faggionato. Collector, gallerist, Monaco.

Riccardo Magi, Segretario di +Europa, Italy

Joaquín Almunia, Secretary General of the PSOE, Member of Parliament (1979–2002), Minister (1982–1991), and European Commissioner (2004–2014), Madrid, Spain.

Nikita Kadan. Artist. Kyiv, Ukraine 

Anne Applebaum, journalist and historian, USA/Poland

Oleksandra Matviichuk, human rights lawyer, head of the Center for Civil Liberties, Kyiv, Ukraine

Sławomir Sierakowski, journalist, literary critic, director of Krytyka Polityczna, Warsaw, Poland.

Solvita Krese. Director. Latvian Center for Contemporary Art (LCCA), Commissioner of the Latvian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Riga, Latvia. 

Dr. Anthony Gardner, Professor of Contemporary Art History, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Yulia Lytvynets. Director. National Art Museum of Ukraine. Kyiv, Ukraine. 

Mercedes Villardel. Philanthropist, Member of the board, Reinia Sophia museum, Madrid, Spain.

Dr. David Crowley, Head of the School of Visual Culture, Head of Research, National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland.

Piotr M. A. Cywiński, director, Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, Poland

Otto Dieleman, Foundation Kazerne, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. 

Katja Petrowskaja. Writer, Berlin, Germany.

Elsa Ballauri.  Director, Women’s Museum, Tirana, Albania.

Tomás de la Quadra Salcedo, Former Minister of Justice and President of the Council of State, Madrid, Spain.

Dr. Svitlana Biedarieva, President of the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA), USA, Mexico City, Mexico.

Anda Rottenberg, Curator, Warsaw, Poland

Dr. Harald Binder. Founder of Jam Factory Art Center, Lviv, Ukraine.

Mirko Petrić. Cultural sociologist, Split, Croatia. 

Dr. Sophie Lilie. Art historian, Vienna, Austria.

Olena Siyanko. Executive Director, Ukrainian Museum, New York, USA.

Igor Boni,  Presidente di "Europa Radicale", Italy

Taras Gembik, curator, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw

Joanna Wasilewska, Vice Chairman, International Committee, ICOM Poland 

Antonina Stebur, curator, Transmediale, Berlin

Dr. Michał Murawski (School of Slavonic and East European Studies), Co-Curator of Ukrainian Pavilion, 19th International Architecture Exhibition––La Biennale Di Venezia

Elena Oranskaia. Foundation Art-East+Art-West, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Olly Racz. Independent Media Producer, London, UK.

Vadim Zakharov. Artist, Berlin, Germany

Janka Vukmir. President. Institute of Contemporary Art, Zagreb Croatia. 

Valeria Ibraeva. Art critic, curator. Almaty, Kazahstan.

Anna Reid. Historian, journalist. London, UK.

Giulia De Florio, Associate professor of Slavic Studies, Chairwoman of Memorial Italia, Italy

Izabela Grocholski. Art Advisor, New York, USA. 

Iryna Belan. Journalist, writer. Sint-Truiden, Belgium. 

Dr. Konstantin Akinsha. Curator, art historian, Head of the Board, Avant-Gard Art Research Project, Cambridge, UK.

Katia Margolis. Artist, author, activist. Venice, Italy.

Dr Tamara Trodd. Senior Lecturer in the History of Modern and Contemporary Art, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

Rosa Massagué. Journalist, Barcelona, Spain.

Bashkim Shehu. Writer, Albnia/Spain.

Sofia Cánovas Pereda. International Human Rights, Intellectual Property & ICT Lawyer, Barcelona, Spain.

Monika Zgustova. Writer, Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. Umut Özkirimli. Professor, Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. Antonio Monegal.  Professor, University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.

Robin Saikia, author, director Vert-de-Venise Gallery, Italy/UK

Perico Pastor. Artist, Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. James Nixey. Senior Research Fellow, Conflict Studies Research Centre and former Director of the Russia and Eurasia Program, Chatham House, London, UK.

Dr. Alexandra Kusá. Art historian, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Joanna Wasilewska, Vice Chairman, International Committee, ICOM Poland 

Anda Rottenberg, Art Historian and Curator, Director of Zachętą National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, (1993-2001), Poland

Jakub Gawkowski, curator, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland

Taras Gembik, curator, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland

Antonina Stebur, curator, Transmediale, Berlin 

Agnieszka Morawińska, Art Historian, Director of the National Museum In Warsaw (2010-2018), Poland

Arye Wachsmuth. Media artist, Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Katarína Beňová, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Нanna Borisova. Architect, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Dr. Klara Kemp-Welch. Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK.

Dr. Maria Mileeva. Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK.

Dr. Cristiana Facchini. Professor. University of Bologna, Italy.

Dr. Daniel Muzyczuk. Director. Museum of Art, Łódź, Poland. 

Katya Krausova. Producer. Portobello Media, LTD, London, UK.

Dr. Cedric Cohen-Skalli. Professor. University of Haifa, Israel. 

Lauren Warner-Treloar. Co‑Chair, BASU Arts & Culture Working Group and PhD Candidate, Kingston University, UK.

Dr. Katya Denysova. Art historian, University of Tübingen, Germany. 

Daniela Zyman. Curator. Vienna, Austria. 

Carles Torner. Writer, Barcelona, Spain.

Marie-Laure Bernadac. Curator, Paris, France.

Sissal Tholass. Artist Norway/Germany

Natasha Milovzorova. Researcher, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris, France.

Dr. Fernando Vallespín. Emeritus professor of Political Science, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Dr. Masha Chlenova. Assistant Professor, Visual Studies, New School, New York, USA.

Sergei Lebedev. Writer. Potsdam, Germany. 

Maria Isseris. Curator, Co-Founder of Museums for Ukraine, Deputy Chair of Kulturstiftung Ukraine, Berlin, Germany. 

Dr. Valérie Pozner. Research Director at CNRS (Thalim), Paris, France. 

Dr. Andrei Rikhter. Professor, Comenius University Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia. 

Dr. Laurent Coumel. Assistant professor, National institute of oriental languages and civilisations (INALCO), Paris, France

Klaus Nellen. Permanent Fellow emeritus, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Sylvie Rollet. Professor emeritus, President  Pour l'Ukraine, pour leur Liberté et la Nôtre! Paris, France. 

Christian Castagna. President. Thinktank Voisinages, Paris, France. 

José Ignacio Torreblanca. European Council on Foreign Relations, Madrid's office, Madrid, Spain.

Dr. Xosé M. Núñez Seixas. Professor of Modern & Contemporary History, University of Santiago de Compostela. Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Dr. Cesáreo Rodríguez-Aguilera. Emeritus professor of political science, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. 

Jerzy Wójcik. Publisher, co-founder of Sestry.eu. Warsaw, Poland.

Dr. Lola Kantor-Kazovsky. Professor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.

Edlira Hoxholli. Translator, Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. Marie Mendras. Professor, University Sciences Po, Paris, France.

Cosmin Staniloiu.  Journalist, Buchartest, Romania. 

Covadonga Morales Bertrand.  International relations specialist, Madrid, Spain. 

Dr. Hugh Roberts, Professor, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.

Dr. Olenka Pevny. Associate Professor of Slavonic Studies, University of Cambridge, Fellow, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK.

Dr. Precious N Chatterje-Doody, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Associate Editor, International Affairs, Milton Keynes, UK. 

Dr. Irina Dovbischuk. Associate Professor, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada

Dr Viktoria Bavykina. Co-Curator of the National Pavilion of Ukraine at the 60th Venice Biennale, Kyiv, Ukraine. 

Max Gorbatskyi. Co-Curator of the National Pavilion of Ukraine at the 60th Venice Biennale, Head of Exhibition at Open Eye Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine. 

Olga Tykhonova. Head of Strategic Development, Museum Booster, Vienna, Austria.

Pauli Sivonen. Director, the Serlachius Museums, Mänttä, Finland.

Olga Liskiwskyi. Executive Director at the Ukrainian American Archives & Museum, Detroit, USA.

Alexander Tolksdorf. Board Member at the Ukrainian American Archives & Museum, Detroit, USA

Markus Reyman. Director, TBA21, Venice, Italy.

Rosa Ferre. Director, TBA 21, Madrid, Spain.

Olha Lupuliak, Ukrainian language teacher. Ukrainian Institute, London, UK. 

Dmytro Yesypenko. Research Assistant, Coordinator of the Sustainable Ukrainian Canadian Heritage Program, Kule Folklore Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Dr. Oleh S. Ilnytzkyj.  Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Sara Nesteruk, Senior Lecturer, SODA, The School of Digital Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK.

Dr. Tamara Trodd. Senior Lecturer, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, UK.

Kateryna Rusetska. Co-curator of Ukrainian Pavilion, the 19-th Architecture Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia 2025, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Dr. Joan Subirats. Professor emeritus, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. Michal Murawski-Muthesius, Faculty member, School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London, London, UK.

Pavlo Makov. Artist. Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Dr. Natalia Pylypiuk. Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta, Calgary, Canada.

Tetiana Filevska. Artistic director, Ukrainian institute, commissioner of the Ukrainian pavilion, the 19-th International Architecture Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia, 2025. Kyiv, Ukraine. 

Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius. Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, UK.

Peppino Ortoleva. Retired Professor, curator, Università di Torino, Torino, Italy.

Dr. Francesco Cassata. Professor of Contemporary History, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.

Dr. Jen Budney. Executive Director and CEO, Ukrainian Museum of Canada (UWAC), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Dr. Nadiya Ivanenko. Gerda Henkel Research Fellow, Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Dr. Myroslava Mudrak.  Professor Emeritus of Art History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Tomás Saraceno. Artist. Argentina/Germany.

Yarema Malashchuk. Artist, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Nadja Romain. Founder, creative studio and gallery Lo Studio-Nadja Romain, Venice, Italy.

Dr. Marianna Otmianowska. Director. Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw, Poland.

Justyna Szylman. Managing Partner at Columbus Private (Suisse) SA, Warsaw, Poland.

Dr. Arkadiusz Półtorak. President, AICA Poland, Warsaw, Poland.

Magdalena Ujma. Vice-President, AICA Poland, Warsaw, Poland.

Marta Czyż. Secretary General, AICA Poland. Warsaw, Poland.

Dr. Magdalena Ziółkowska, Board Member, AICA Poland, Warsaw, Poland.

Dr. Dorota Jarecka. Board Member, AICA Poland, Warsaw, Poland.

Jagna Lewandowska, Treasurer, AICA Poland, Warsaw, Poland.

Dr. Bohdan Klid. Director of Research, Holodomor Research and Education Consortium, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Dr. Kseniya Oksamytna. Reader in International Politics, City St George's, University of London, London, UK.

Dr. Mark Allen Svede. Senior Lecturer, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.

Olga Golovko. Co-founder on Ukrainian Club of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.

Iryna Baturevych. Co-founder of Chytomo media, Montreal, Canada.

Mario Corti, journalist, Italy. 

Elena Gori Corti, translator, Italy. 

Valerii Pekar, chairman of the board, Decolonisation NGO, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Zoya Zvynyatkivska, art historian, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Francesca Gori , Memorial Italia, Italy.

Roxana Kenjeeva, artist, designer, UK.

Oles Horodetskyy.  Presidente dell'Associazione cristiana degli ucraini in Italia, Italy.

Luca Aniasi. Presidente della Federazione Italiana Associazioni Partigiane, Italy.

Bart de Baere. Curator, Antwerp, Belgium.

Fiona Benson FRSL, freelance poet, Devon UK.

Bogdana Kosmina. Artist, architect, NGO Dzherelo, Co-Curator of Ukrainian Pavilion, 19th International Architecture Exhibition––La Biennale Di Venezia (2025).

Anton Litvin. Artist, paticipant of the Venice Biennale 2005, Czech Republic.

Antonio Stango. Presidente della Federazione Italiana Diritti Umani, Italy.

Miguel Satrústegui Honorary Professor, Carlos III University, Madrid, Spain.

Sasha Kenjeeva, Researcher, Tilburg University, Netherlands.

Berta Maure, Nuclear Safety and Radiological Protection Technician, retired, Madrid, Spain.

Milagros Candela, former Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU, Madrid, Spain.

Teresa Janini. General Administration Technician, retired, Madrid, Spain.

Bohdan Rajcinec. European Congress of Ukrainians Chairman, Czech Republic.

Ragnar Kjartansson. Contemporary artist working with performance, video, painting, and music, Iceland.

Arseni Maximov Eudoquimova,  association of Free Russians, Spain.

Ruslan Gabbasov. Head of the Committee of the Bashkort National Movement Abroad, Lithuania.

Nadia Muraveva. Writer and poet, Spain.

Danila Tkachenko. Artist, World Press Photo award 2014, Italy.

Dr. Radjana Dugar-DePonte. Author, co-chair of the Democratic movement “Buryad-Mongol Erkheten,” member of The Free Nations League, USA.

Prof. Cécile Vaissié. Slavist, historian, Rennes 2 University, France.

Anna Zafesova. Journalist, columnist for La Stampa, Milan, Italy.

Giorgio Arfaras, Economist. Centro Einaudi, Italy.

Antonia Crespi Bennassar. Co-Founder and Director Tarmak22 , Gstaad. Switzerland.

Gabriel Calparsoro, Art Collector. President of Fundación Calparsoro, Spain.

Richard Massey. Graphic designer, Spain.

Prof Maria Tumarkin. writer and cultural historian, The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Samuele Vianello. secretary of Radicali Venezia, Italy.

Dr. Maria Ochir-Goryaeva. Corresponding Member, German Archaeological Institute, Decolonial activist, Human rights defender, Germany.

Robert Horowitz. Editor/writer/artist, Prague, Czech Republic.

Ambassador Giorgi Badridze, Senior Fellow, Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, Tbilisi, Georgia.

John Carlin, Journalist, Barcelona, Spain.

Tamara Germanovic, Professor of Slavic Philology, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.

Maria Stavrinaki, Professor of History of Contemporary Art, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.

Paul Grod, presidente del Congresso Mondiale degli Ucraini, Canada

Benedetto Della Vedova, Parlamentare, presidente di + Europa, Italy

Aygul Lyon, journalist, USA

Galina Rymbu, poet, writer, Lviv, Ukraine