{"id":984965,"date":"2026-05-26T02:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/984965\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T02:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:12:16","slug":"how-the-venice-biennale-became-russias-way-back-into-europe-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/984965\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Venice Biennale became Russia\u2019s way back into Europe \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Featuring giant floral installations and various musical performances, Russia\u2019s exhibit was one of the most politically explosive in years, drawing politicians, artists, dissidents and European institutions into an increasingly bitter clash over culture, propaganda and freedom of expression. <\/p>\n<p>Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini personally visited the pavilion  during the pre-opening days. \u201cArt has no borders, no censorship, no gag,\u201d he said. \u201cCulture and sport should remain neutral spaces and places of encounter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But for critics of Russia\u2019s participation, Russia\u2019s display was less about artistic freedom than an attempt to regain international legitimacy after the country\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_0716-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8471741\"  \/>A Ukrainian protester is pictured in front of the closed Russian pavilion on the day of the Biennale\u2019s official opening to the public. | Martina Sapio\/POLITICO<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe presence of Russia at the Biennale is an attempt to normalize the war,\u201d said Ksenia Malykh, curator of the Ukrainian pavilion, which had its central installation \u2014 a deer statue called \u201cSecurity Guarantees\u201d \u2014 installed within sight of the Russia\u2019s building.<\/p>\n<p>These concerns had already triggered a sharp political backlash long before the biennale opened its doors: In April, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/eu-cut-venice-biennale-funding-russia-participation-kaja-kallas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a> the European Commission intended to cut roughly \u20ac2 million in event funding over Russia\u2019s participation, 25 European countries backed calls to exclude Russia from the exhibition, and the Italian government effectively boycotted the opening.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s soft power<\/p>\n<p>The biennale is not the first or only place Russia is slowly reinstating its international presence. Over the past few months, global federations have begun readmitting Russian athletes into disciplines ranging from aquatics to gymnastics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Featuring giant floral installations and various musical performances, Russia\u2019s exhibit was one of the most politically explosive in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":984966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[2766,46647,805,4582,2199,2596,660,2442,269,273826,106853,332,18111,93,657,333,335],"class_list":["post-984965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-culture","tag-eu-russia-relations","tag-foreign-policy","tag-human-rights","tag-italy","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-kremlin","tag-matteo-salvini","tag-music","tag-petras-austrevicius","tag-pina-picierno","tag-russia","tag-society-and-culture","tag-sport","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116638460351204522","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=984965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/984966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}