{"id":15892,"date":"2026-05-07T05:13:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T05:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/15892\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T05:13:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T05:13:04","slug":"anti-russia-groups-storm-pavilion-and-let-off-smoke-bombs-at-venice-biennale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/15892\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Russia groups storm pavilion and let off smoke bombs at Venice Biennale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Russian punk group Pussy Riot and members of the Ukrainian feminist organisation FEMEN were among protesters who stormed the opening of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Yelling &#8220;Russia&#8217;s art is blood&#8221; and &#8220;Disobey&#8221; under a cloud of pink, blue and yellow smoke, the anti-Putin feminist groups covered their faces with pink balaclavas before rushing the venue in the Giardini exhibition area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Italian police prevented the protesters from entering the pavilion, which was blockaded for about 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">This year marks Russia&#8217;s first participation in the international arts show since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The European Union has slashed a 2 million euro ($3.2 million) grant to the Biennale in protest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova said the only Russian art that should be shown was by dissidents who were jailed &#8220;for mostly ridiculous charges&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A large crowd of people wearing pink balaclavas letting off pink smoke bombs outside a building with a Russia sign.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cce711163c4904f3ece52de86c6cb1d1.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Russia is participating in the event for the first time since its invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. (AP: Luca Bruno)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Those people make art, and I want that art to represent Russia, because they represent the real face of Russia,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The jury that awards the prestigious Golden Lion prizes resigned last week in protest over the participation of Russia and Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It had said it would not award prizes to countries under investigation by the International Criminal Court for human rights abuses, effectively isolating the two countries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Russia&#8217;s pavilion, which features a series of musical performances in a downstairs space, is scheduled to be open only for the first week of previews before the official opening of the Biennale on May 9.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Tolokonnikova said that efforts to contact the Biennale organisers had failed, and that to enter the Giardini venue, she had to use an assumed name to get through security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The Biennale has defended Russia&#8217;s participation, saying any country that has relations with Italy can be included. The Italian government has opposed the decision, while acknowledging the Biennale&#8217;s independence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian punk group Pussy Riot and members of the Ukrainian feminist organisation FEMEN were among protesters who stormed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5673,1714,5664,5,4403],"class_list":{"0":"post-15892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-nadya-tolokonnikova","9":"tag-protest","10":"tag-pussy-riot","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-venice-biennale"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}