The Venice Biennale has long stood as a global symbol of artistic freedom, cultural dialogue, and the defense of human dignity. Yet today, as Russia continues its genocidal war against Ukraine, the decision to allow the Russian Federation to participate in the 61st International Art Exhibition threatens to undermine these very principles.
Since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has waged a systematic campaign of terror against the Ukrainian people. Civilians have been murdered, children abducted, cities destroyed, and entire communities erased.
Ukraine’s cultural heritage has been deliberately targeted: museums looted, libraries burned, archives obliterated, and historic sites reduced to rubble. Ukrainian artists, writers, journalists, and cultural workers have been killed or displaced. This is a coordinated effort to extinguish Ukrainian identity.
Despite this, the Kremlin now seeks to re-enter the Biennale under the guise of cultural exchange. “Culture in today’s Russia is inseparable from state power. As UWC President Paul Grod has emphasized, “Russia has weaponized culture just as it has weaponized history, turning art into a tool of propaganda, imperialism, and war.”
The announced commissioner of the Russian Pavilion has direct ties to Russia’s military-industrial complex, exposing the fiction of independence. Equally troubling is the Kremlin’s cynical appropriation of decolonial language while suppressing Indigenous peoples at home and waging an imperial war abroad. The inclusion of artists from countries harmed by Russian mercenary violence further reveals the Kremlin’s strategy to manipulate global narratives and obscure its own crimes.
Allowing Russia to participate in the Biennale risks normalizing aggression and laundering war crimes through cultural platforms. It sends a dangerous message that a state can commit genocide while enjoying the privileges of global cultural representation.
The Ukrainian World Congress calls on the international community to:
- Condemn Russia’s participation in the Venice Biennale and reject the Kremlin’s use of cultural institutions to legitimize its ongoing war of aggression;
- Recognize the destruction of Ukrainian culture as an integral part of Russia’s genocidal campaign;
- Stand in solidarity with Ukrainian artists and cultural workers whose lives, heritage, and identity remain under attack.
The Venice Biennale must not become a stage for the aggressor. It must remain a beacon of truth, justice, and human dignity, a place where art resists violence rather than conceals it.
