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In other words, the point of the Biennale, which is to celebrate contemporary art in all its forms, is being sacrificed to virtue-signalling egocentricity. As it happens, I have a good deal of sympathy with the views of these people, but cancelling artists isn\u2019t the way to go.<\/p>\n
It feels wrong to cancel artists because you disapprove of what their countries are up to<\/p>\n
If you care about culture, it feels all wrong to cancel artists because you disapprove of what their countries are up to. This Biennale has become all about the protesters and their values, not about the art. This isn\u2019t to say that the pavilions of either Russia or Israel are particularly exciting this year \u2014 the former has several striking flower arrangements while the latter boasts a water feature \u2014 but it\u2019s the principle that matters. Boycotts are bad for art and it\u2019s especially bad for the Biennale. Its founding principle is \u201cbased on openness, dialogue and the rejection of any form of closure or censorship\u201d.<\/p>\n
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FEMEN and Pussy Riot activists stage a protest against the participation of Russia in the Venice Biennale art show<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s precisely closure and censorship we\u2019ve had since it was announced that Israel and Russia would be participating \u2014 in the case of Russia, after a four-year absence. And the result has been that the news from the exhibition has been all about the protests, not about the exhibits (with the possible exception of the brilliant Holzinger). What a waste.<\/p>\n
Against the spirit of Venice<\/p>\n
The result of the succession of no-shows, cancellations and the refusal of prizes by exhibitors, many of whom wouldn\u2019t have been in with a chance anyway, has turned this exhibition into the very reverse of what the curator, the late Koyo Kouoh, who died of cancer before she could realise her vision for the exhibition, intended. <\/p>\n
The show\u2019s theme this year is \u2018In Minor Keys\u2019 which she wanted to be a celebration of stillness and meditativeness. But right now, the Biennale actually amplifies and intensifies the conflicts outside. As Kouoh put it: \u201cIn refusing the spectacle of horror, the time has come to listen to the minor keys; to find the oasis, the islands, where the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded.\u201d So how does banning countries square with that?<\/p>\n
Boycotts and no-shows negate protest art as well as every other kind<\/p>\n
All of which raises the question of what art and culture is for. Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the Biennale president, has been courageous in saying that calls to ban countries from the Biennale would go against its mission to be \u201cthe place where the world comes together\u201d. That is one of the many functions of art, to be a medium of engagement. That doesn\u2019t mean to say that art must eschew confrontation; of course not. But boycotts and no-shows negate protest art as well as every other kind. If countries are not represented, engagement is impossible. And where does this stop, once you start? Anish Kapoor has pronounced that the US too should have been banned on the basis of its \u201cpolitics of hate\u201d. Any other countries you disapprove of, Anish?<\/p>\n
The censors are diminished<\/p>\n
During the Great War, Britons routinely expressed their horror at Germany\u2019s brutal invasion of Belgium by banning the public performance of German music (and stoning dachshunds). And what did the exclusion of Beethoven and Bach from concert halls do, except impoverish audiences? After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several cultural institutions in Britain similarly boycotted Tchaikovsky. Russian artists, including ballerinas, became toxic. All that does is to seek to punish a country by picking on the noblest aspects of its culture; it did not diminish the artists but it did diminish the censors. Russia has a profound, rich and complex culture that will outlast the current regime. How is the world enriched by turning its back on that? Come to that, how does it benefit Ukraine and its suffering people?<\/p>\n
The resignations will do nothing to encourage critical engagement between artists, cultures and countries<\/p>\n