Paul Grod, President of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), has joined an international coalition calling to block Russia’s participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
An open letter addressed to the Biennale’s leadership has been signed by hundreds of prominent cultural figures, politicians, and human rights defenders. The signatories demand that the official Russian pavilion be excluded from the exhibition.
“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 appeal states.
The list of signatories includes Pina Picierno, Vice-President of the European Parliament; Viktor Yushchenko, the third President of Ukraine; Timothy Garton Ash, Professor at Oxford University; and Anne Applebaum, the American-British journalist and historian, among others.
“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,” the letter emphasizes.
The appeal urges the Venice Biennale leadership and the international arts community to openly address the implications of Russia’s involvement and to reaffirm the ethical principles established 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,” the signatories conclude.
Previously, the UWC called on the international community to condemn Russia’s participation in the Biennale, prevent the use of cultural institutions to legitimize the Kremlin’s war, recognize the destruction of Ukrainian culture as an act of genocide, and stand in solidarity with Ukrainian artists.
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