San Francisco Frontiers - Conflict inflames tensions at Venice Biennale of Art

In the gardens where the world’s largest contemporary art event opens to the public Saturday, the Russian pavilion stands just a few paces from a deer sculpture that was rescued from the Ukrainian front lines.

Russia's return to the Biennale -- from which it had been absent since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine -- has sparked an international outcry since being announced in early March.

"Having them here in the Biennale is like inviting a serial killer to a dinner with your friends," Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetiana Berejna said Thursday at Venice.

Those who argue that war should not make a difference when it comes to art and that all should be welcome at the prestigious festival are "absolutely wrong," Berejna told AFP, adding that 346 Ukrainian artists have been killed by Russia since the war began.

"When Russia comes to our country, they destroy our libraries, they burn our books, they destroy our museums," she said.

"Culture is targeted during this war."

Besides Russia and Ukraine, other countries involved in conflicts are represented in Venice, including the United States and Israel, which attacked Iran in late February. Tehran, originally scheduled to participate, ultimately decided not to attend.

This year, Israel has a pavilion at the Arsenale, a former shipyard that serves as additional exhibition space at the Biennale, not far from Ukraine's.

The Palestinians, whose state is not recognised by Italy, do not have their own pavilion but are represented by an exhibition dedicated to Gaza at the Palazzo Mora, titled "Gaza - No Words - See the Exhibit".

"There's really no way to describe the horror that was inflicted upon the Palestinians in Gaza, and I don't think we would want to be in the same place as the people who did that," said the exhibition's curator, Faisal Saleh, founder of the Palestine Museum in the US state of Connecticut.

Police officers stationed near the Russian, Israeli and US pavilions serve as a reminder that the global geopolitical situation makes coexistence between countries at war -- including within the realm of art -- potentially explosive.

On Friday, a fresh pro-Palestinian demonstration brought together about 2,000 people in Venice, according to the Italian news agency Ansa, to protest against Israel's presence at the Biennale.

- Artists as spokespeople? -

Russia's pavilion became the epicentre of protests against Moscow’s presence on Wednesday, as members of the Russian activist group Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian feminist collective Femen staged their first joint action, appearing with hooded faces and breasts bared.

"If the Biennale were to start selecting not works but affiliations, not visions but passports, it would cease to be what it has always been: the place where the world comes together, and all the more so when the world is torn apart," argued Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco Wednesday.

Israeli artist Belu-Simion Fainaru told AFP that the divisions at the Biennale were "destroying the meaning of art... to unite people".

"I don’t think we should reduce the art world to a political arena," added the sculptor, whose installation, "The Rose of Nothingness", is a water basin fed by a drip irrigation system.

That position was also voiced by Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini who visited the Biennale Friday: "I don’t think American, Chinese, Israeli, or Russian artists are spokespeople for ongoing conflicts.”

At Palazzo Mora, about a hundred pieces of embroidery, hand-woven by Palestinian women in refugee camps, reproduce images “more vivid than photographs” of what has gone on in Gaza over the past two years, explained Saleh.

As if to calm the controversy, three evenings dedicated to reflection and "the theme of peace" were scheduled during the pre-opening week, featuring Russian director Alexander Sokurov and Palestinian writer and architect Suad Amiry.

K.Torres--SFF