Open letter

To:
La Biennale di Venezia
Ministero della Cultura

Minister of Culture: Alessandro Giuli
President of the Biennale: Pietrangelo Buttafuoco
Board members: Luigi Brugnaro, Tamara Gregoretti, Luca Zaia
Auditors' committee: Pasqualino Castaldi, Ines Gandini, Angelo Napolitano, Clotilde Ocone
Director General: Andrea Del Mercato

The undersigned Commissioners of National Pavilions, Curators and Artists at the 61st International Art
Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia express our joint disagreement with the Russian Pavilion officially
taking part in the Biennale.

A statement regarding the Russian participation was already signed in 2022. Nothing has changed by
2026. Russia is still brutalizing millions of Ukraine's innocent people, attacking Ukraine's independence,
sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders. We cannot stand silently,
facing the Russian invasion of the free and sovereign country of Ukraine.

The decision to let Russia participate in La Biennale Arte undermines international efforts to isolate
Russia in response to Russia's ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine. The European Union has
agreed on isolating all official cultural, educational, and scientific cooperation with Russian state entities.
La Biennale as an Italian state-sponsored institution carries the moral responsibility to embody these
objectives.

We call la Biennale di Venezia to officially deny Russian national participation. The Pavilion of Russia is
an official representative of the country, which still continues its full-scale war in Ukraine and is openly
aggressive towards the neighbouring countries, denying and mocking democratic values. Unlike an
embassy, the Pavilion of Russia does not possess diplomatic immunity. According to the Procedure for
National Participations, La Biennale holds the final authority in case of disputes. Consequently, both the
Biennale organizers and the Italian government hold the authority to deny participation, as the questions
raised here are not only ethical, but also legal and inevitably political.

Art has always stood in opposition to darkness and the evil powers in this world and should remain a
terrain in which difficult questions and issues are spoken about, where everyone is invited to share their
opinions and worldviews in order to create a better, more inclusive present, and to pave a way to a
brighter future. It would still be unimaginable and unacceptable at this dark hour for Russia to be officially
represented at La Biennale di Venezia.

Signed by
The Estonian Pavilion (Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art)
Merike Estna, Natalia Sielewicz (artist and curator representing Estonia at the Biennale Arte 2026)

The Estonian Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2027 (Estonian Ministry of Culture)

The Lithuanian Pavilion (Lithuanian National Museum of Art)
Lolita Jablonskienė, commissioner; Louise O'Kelly, curator; Eglė Budvytytė, artist, representing Lithuania at the Biennale Arte 2026

The Lithuanian Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2027 (National Architecture Institute)

The Latvian Pavilion (Latvian Center for Contemporary Art)
Solvita Krese (commissioner of the Latvian Pavilion)
Inga Lace, Adomas Narkevicius, Mārīte Mastiņa Pēterkopa, Rolands Pēterkops, Bruno Birmanis (curators and artists representing Latvia at the Biennale Arte 2026)

The Pavilion of Finland (Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Commissioner)

The Pavilion of Finland at the Biennale Architettura 2027 (Archinfo, Commissioner)

The Croatian Pavilion (Ministry of Culture and Media, Commissioner)
Agnieszka Pindera, Polish Pavilion Commissioner (Zachęta - National Gallery of Art)
Bogna Burska, Ewa Chomicka, Daniel Kotowski, Jolanta Woszczenko (artists and curators representing Poland at the Biennale Arte 2026) Jakub Jansa, Selmeci Kocka Jusko, Peter Sit (artists and curator representing Czech and Slovak republic at the Biennale Arte 2026)

The Pavilion of France (Institut français, Commissioner)