Israel, Russia, Qatar: if in wartime the Venice Biennale is geopolitical

It’s just art, or rather architecture, in the case of the Venice Biennale 2025, some will say. But in the international exposition, which opens this year on May 10, as in a bit of all spaces that tell the story of the world, from the Expo to the Olympics, the upheavals of a changing world are seen and reflected sharply. In the case of the Venice Biennale, a historic and historicized fair, on a double track. On the one hand, any state recognized by Italy is entitled to participate free of charge in the exhibition with its own national pavilion, which is why, for example, Kosovo (recognized by more than eighty countries, including Italy) has been participating for some time, but not Palestine (recognized by more than one hundred and forty countries, but not Italy). On the other hand, about thirty states have “fixed” spaces, owned or under concession for decades, at the Giardini, the oldest and most prestigious space of the Biennale, or in some cases (like Italy) at theArsenale, while all the others have to find and pay for a space year by year: either in the new area of the Arsenale tense, managed by the Biennale itself, which houses about twenty pavilions, or around the city of Venice.

Each year new states and new markets enter the exhibition: this year Togo, Oman and, with a central pavilion in the Arsenale, Azerbaijan are in their first participation. Which incidentally is conducting a military occupation of Nagorno Karabakh, Armenian territory it wants to take, or rather has already taken, possession of. But it is at the Giardini, this year as always, that the “geopolitical” news of the Architecture Biennale 2025 unravels. From Gaza to Moscow.

Qatar’s grand debut: at the Giardini to stay

The Qatar Pavilion opened on May 8: as previously written, a more unique than rare event. The first permanent pavilion granted at the Giardini in 30 years, to a nation that had never participated in the Biennale before. There was no time to construct a building (which will be ready for next year and designed by Lina Ghotmeh) so there is a temporary installation at the Giardini this year, Yasmeen Lari’s Community Centre. But it is in the area of the future pavilion, very close to the Biennale’s Central Pavilion.

Proudly clarifying the relevance of the operation in Qatar’s plans was Sheikha Al Thani, the emirate’s cultural plenipotentiary of sorts and the emirate’s sister, who has been responsible for the “landing” in Venice from the beginning. Dressed Western, indeed casual, with black glasses on her head, she emphasized the point: “We are here to give voice to the stories of our region, not with compromise, but with confidence. We don’t want to be here as foreigners, but as storytellers.” This, Al Thani said, will not just be a pavilion but a home. The first installation is by a Pakistani architect; the pavilion will be designed by a Lebanese architect who lives and works in Paris. Qatar will use that space to increase its role as an international player in the entire Menasa region, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

Also present were Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, who said, "This is the garden of diplomacy. One does not say, because it is not the case, at the inaugurations, the rules of contemporary diplomacy: Qatar, to achieve (also) this historic result, has also donated, in 2024, 50 million to the City of Venice. And from now it will play at the Giardini as a protagonist, in the midst of dozens of European pavilions.

Russia’s “rehabilitation”

Other real news concerns Russia’s pavilion, one of the most historic pavilions in the Giardini, dated 2014. In March 2022, after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Biennale had written a very stark statement in support of the Ukrainian resistance, claiming that it would reject “any form of collaboration with those who have carried out or support an act of aggression of unprecedented severity,” and that it would not accept “the presence at its events of official delegations, institutions and personalities in any capacity linked to the Russian government,” which was also referred to in the same statement as the “Russian regime.”

This year, however, Russia appears completely rehabilitated, despite the still ongoing war. So much so that the Biennial’s educational program is being held inside the Russian pavilion (which had been closed in 2022 and 2023, and in 2024 had hosted Bolivia, by Russian decision), since there is ongoing work on the central pavilion. Indeed, a new communiqué states that “following a request from the Biennale and a cooperation agreement, the Russian Federation will make the Pavilion of Russia at the Giardini available during the entire duration of the Architecture Biennale 2025, thus providing an opportunity for cooperation and visibility for activities aimed at universities, schools, families and the general public, as part of the Biennale’s Educational project.” The sentences condemning aggressive policies are gone.

Israel pavilion remains closed

Israel’s pavilion, on the other hand, will not be contested for this year, despite the ongoing massacre in Gaza that is raising more and more international complaints. The reason is simple: it will not be there. It is closed for work, announced for June 2024, and which may end not very soon, wrote the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

It’s hard to believe it’s not related to what happened last year: first an international petition asking Biennale to boycott the pavilion (as it did for decades with apartheid South Africa), then the pavilion itself remaining closed, to the protest of female artists and curators, displaying only one message, throughout the months of the exhibition: we will not reopen “until the ceasefire and the release of the hostages.” Neither has happened yet. And again, on the second day of the opening, a procession attended by hundreds of people, inside the Biennale Gardens (something not seen in decades) against the “genocide pavilion” and Biennale policies that would not do enough to condemn the actions of the Israeli government.

The Biennale thus opens, with a world in transformation, between Giardini with closed, reopened, or brand new pavilions.

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