There has been concern over Russia’s reinstatement ever since it was announced by Moscow earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The European Commission has “strongly condemned” the move and threatened to pull \u20ac2 million in funding for the Biennale. It argues that “Allowing the aggressor, Russia, to shine” on such a platform is against ethical standards linked to the grant.<\/p>\n
Italy’s own culture minister will not attend when the fair opens to the public on Saturday.<\/p>\n
But deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini \u2013 who famously visited Red Square in 2014 in a Putin T-shirt \u2013 refuses to join the boycott, arguing that “No pavilion should be excluded.”<\/p>\n
One source in Brussels suggested the Commission was not impressed by Italy’s response.<\/p>\n
The disquiet over the 61st Biennale goes beyond the return of Russia.<\/p>\n
Last week, the entire international jury resigned after a statement that referred to countries with leaders wanted by the ICC for suspected war crimes. It meant Russia and Israel.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday morning a separate group of protesters descended on the Israeli exhibit, leaving the floor outside carpeted with rain-sodden leaflets denouncing a “Genocide Pavilion”.<\/p>\n
Israel’s foreign ministry has previously criticised a “political jury” for making the Biennale a place of “anti-Israeli political indoctrination”.<\/p>\n
As the fuss has grown, the event’s president has resisted requests for interviews. A right-wing former journalist, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, has spoken admiringly in the past of Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
Today, he broke his near silence on the Biennale to accuse critics of creating a “laboratory of intolerance” and condemn what he styled as censorship and exclusion in calls for Russia and Israel to be banned.<\/p>\n
“If the Biennale began to select not works but affiliations, not visions but passports, it would cease to be what it has always been: the place where the world meets,” Buttafuoco announced, then left the press conference before anyone could ask questions.<\/p>\n