To the organizers of the Venice Biennale,

European cultural institutions, and the international art community

Today nearly 26 million people — representing major colonized nations and almost 200 Indigenous peoples within the present-day Russian Federation — remain excluded from international cultural representation.

Their lands make up over one-third of Russia’s territory.

These regions hold around 80% of its natural resources.

Their cultures, languages, and identities are suppressed, erased, or appropriated.

Their histories are marked by genocide, deportation, repression, and discrimination.

Their representatives are targeted, imprisoned, or forced into exile.

Every fourth person in Russia is not ethnically Russian.

Yet their voices are practically absent from the international art and public scene.

Russian pavilion does not represent these nations.
It represents an imperialistic state that:

suppresses Indigenous identities,

enforces assimilation,

silences non-Russian and dissident voices,

wages a neo-colonial war against Ukraine involving colonized peoples.

Russia not only represses these peoples — it also appropriates their cultures and decolonial narratives for propaganda to manipulate the international public and enforce its imperial agenda.

The announced program of the official Russian Pavilion reportedly foregrounds the “diverse traditions of Russia,” including artists connected to Indigenous and regional cultures.

Empire uses selected representatives of the colonized peoples to hide its crimes against these peoples whose histories have been shaped by colonization, repression, forced assimilation, and systematic Russification — under both the present Russian regime and historically by the Russian Empire and by the Soviet state.

This is not abstract. This is urgent.

Non-conformist artists, activists, and decolonial leaders face repression,  surveillance, imprisonment and violence — including attempted killings and attacks linked to the Russian regime, even within the European Union.

It requires European and international solidarity.

It has already been formally recognized by European institutions:

“...Indigenous peoples, national and ethnic minorities in the Russian Federation are forcibly russified and subjected to repression and discrimination” (PACE Resolution 2540 (2024) of April 17, 2024)

“The Russian Federation pursues a Russification policy towards numerous indigenous peoples in the country, progressively erasing their cultural identities by restricting the use of their languages, especially in the education system, reducing the domains of their cultural expressions, distorting their history and depriving them of their historical memory, as well as by capturing and prosecuting ethnic minority activists” (PACE Resolution 2558 (2024) of June 26, 2024

“These colonized peoples are forcibly Russified, subjected to repression and discrimination, and deprived of their internationally recognized human, cultural, linguistic, and economic rights.” (OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Resolution, 29 June - 3 July 2024)

This is only a small part of the international resolutions to protect the rights of colonized nations and indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation. All these resolutions emphasize that decolonization is the only way to sustainable peace and democratic development.

We, thus, call for the creation of an independent pavilion at the Venice Biennale for

Indigenous peoples and major colonized nations under Russian control

This pavilion must:

be independent of the Russian state,

be curated by artists and representatives of these nations and communities,

provide a free platform for languages, identities, memory, and contemporary art.

With your support, we can

make these voices visible and recognized,

challenge imperial narratives in global art spaces,

create a more just and representative Biennale.

An independent pavilion is a crucial step toward restoring full agency to peoples whose identities have been systematically erased for centuries.

Sign the petition

Support the creation of an independent pavilion for nations and peoples held under Moscow’s control:

Contact

decolonizart@gmail.com