@guardian: “Curated by Putin, dead bodies included”, “Russia kills, biennale exhibits” and “Russian art, Ukrainian blood”. These words were written across the bodies of protesters gathered outside the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Lanre Bakare, the Guardian’s arts and culture correspondent, sent this report from the pavilion, where the Russian activist group Pussy Riot held a chaotic demonstration, outraged at Russia’s inclusion in the art festival. It was the first year Russia was allowed to participate since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The previous day, crates of prosecco were loaded into the space, where loud techno music was playing – which Nadya Tolokonnikova, a founding member of Pussy Riot, said she was horrified by. In a press statement, Pussy Riot offered to curate the 2028 Russian pavilion, pledging to use work by artists who are or have been imprisoned in Russia. An hour after the Pussy Riot protest on Wednesday, the Art Not Genocide Alliance (Anga) staged a demonstration outside the Israeli pavilion in the Arsenale. The pavilion was locked from the inside while the group gathered in front to protest against Israel’s inclusion despite its war in Gaza. Protest and politics are not new at the biennale. In 1968, protests spilled over from the wider student movement that summer, primarily aimed at the US over the Vietnam war. Six years later, the entire event was dedicated to the people of Chile, who were then under the rule of the military dictator Augusto Pinochet. Head to the link in bio to read our full coverage of the Biennale.

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Thursday 07 May 2026 16:20:15 GMT