The Venice Biennale was disrupted on Friday as some of the major artists at this year’s event shuttered their exhibitions in protest over Israel’s continued participation in the art exhibition.
When the event opened at 10 a.m., dozens of people flocked to Austria’s pavilion, where Florentina Holzinger’s performance “Seaworld Venice,” which includes numerous naked performance artists, had drawn hourslong lines all week. They found the pavilion closed, with a sign outside saying “some team members have decided to participate in the strike.”
Some of the other buzziest exhibitions at this year’s event, including those by artists representing Belgium, Egypt, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea, were also shut. Signs outside some of those pavilions read, “We stand with Palestine.”
Britain’s exhibition was also shuttered, although a sign outside said that was because of a separate strike by Italian cultural workers.
The Biennale’s main exhibition, “In Minor Keys,” appeared to be open as usual.
The strike actions were the latest upheaval at this year’s Biennale, the world’s most important art exhibition, which dates to 1895 and features artists representing their countries in grand national pavilions alongside a major group show. The event, in its final day of previews, is scheduled to open to the public on Saturday and then run through Nov. 22.
For the past month, a political furor has surrounded the event, with artists objecting to Israel being part of the Biennale despite its military campaign in Gaza, as well as the return of Russia to the event for the first time since invading Ukraine in 2022.
Last month, the Biennale’s jury said it would not award prizes to artists from countries whose leaders are being investigated for war crimes, which excluded from consideration both the Israeli and Russian participants. Later, the jury resigned en masse after the artist representing Israel accused the jury of discrimination.
This week, the Biennale’s show grounds have been the site of protests over the Israeli and Russian pavilions.
On Wednesday morning, protesters led by Pussy Riot, the dissident Russian rock band, marched up to the Russia pavilion carrying signs with messages like “Blood is Russia’s art” written on them.
On most days, dozens of artists have also staged regular pro-Palestinian demonstrations, including walking through the Biennale grounds wearing T-shirts with the names of Palestinian artists who were either killed in Gaza or whose work has been affected by the war there.
Zachary Small contributed reporting.