Russia officially participates in Venice Biennale 2026 after two editions of absence

After two consecutive editions marked by absence, Russia will reopen its national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Confirmation came this morning from the Biennale organization itself, which included Russia among the official national participations, after the pavilion’s organizers and the Russian delegate for international cultural exchange, Mikhail Shvidkoi, the federation’s former minister of culture, confirmed the participation to ARTnews magazine yesterday.

In February 2022, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian artists Kirill Savchenkov and Alexandra Sukhareva, along with Lithuanian curator Raimundas Malašauskas, had withdrawn from participation in that year’s Russian pavilion. In a stark stance they had called the war “politically and emotionally unbearable,” saying there was no room for art in that context. Soon after, the organizers had announced on social media that the pavilion would remain closed. Two years later, on the occasion of the 60th edition of the Biennale in 2024, Russia had handed over the keys of its pavilion at the Giardini to Bolivia, which had set up its own participation there. No official communiqué was issued by the Russian side at that time, and attempts to obtain statements from the Ministry of Culture and the pavilion organizers were unsuccessful.

Now, however, the reopening is official. In an email communication to ARTnews’ George Nelson, Shvidkoi stressed that Russia would never actually leave the Venetian event. “The very presence of our pavilion, regardless of what takes place there, whether it is exhibitions of our Latin American friends or the organization of an educational center for the entire Biennale, signifies the presence of our country in the cultural space of Venice,” the delegate said. “Therefore, since we have not gone anywhere, we are not ’returning.’ We are simply looking for new forms of creative activity in the current circumstances. This is further proof that Russian culture is not isolated and that the attempts to ’erase’ it, undertaken over the past four years by Western political elites, have not been successful. This is precisely why we decided to create a project in which a multilingual polyphony of cultures can be heard, cultures that do not consider themselves peripheral to the West.”

The project for 2026 will involve more than fifty artists from Russia and other countries, and the exhibition bears the title The Tree is Rooted in the Sky. A music festival will be organized within the pavilion, featuring artists from different regions of the Russian Federation and countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mali, and Mexico.

In support of the thesis that Russian culture would continue to be present on the international scene, Shvydkoy cited the participation of Russian artists in cultural events in Europe and the United States, including animator Konstantin Bronzit, an Oscar nominee for best animated short film. This, he believes, would show that the Biennale is seeking a solution to the complex situation the Russian pavilion has found itself in and that the curators of the new project intend to present Russian art in collaboration with colleagues from different areas of the world.

Asked about the reopening of the Russian pavilion, the Venice Biennale clarified that the institution does not decide on national participation, with individual countries choosing whether or not to take part in the event.

Meanwhile, this morning the Biennale published the full list of national participations. Russia will have as commissioner Anastasiia Karneeva, the daughter of the former CEO of Rostec, Russia’s state-owned defense holding company, which has been hit by U.S. and European sanctions due to Russian intervention in Ukraine since as early as 2014. Participating artists: Lizaveta Anshina, Ekaterina Antonenko, Vera Bazilevskikh, Antonio Buonuario, Serafim Chaikin, DJ Diaki, Marco Dinelli, Timofey Dudarenko, Faina, Zhanna Gefling, Oleg Gudachev, Atosigado y Herrica, Sofya Ivanishkina, Jaijiu, JLZ, Tatiana Khalbaeva, Alexey Khovalyg, Daria Khrisanova, Nikita Korolev, Oksana Kuznetsova, Roman Malyavkin, Petr Musoev, Artem Nikolaev, Veronika Okuneva, Valerie Oleynik, Georgy Orlov-Davydovsky, Yaroslav Paradovsky, Bogdan Petrenko, Alexey Retinsky, Ekaterina Rostovtseva, Antonina Sergeeva, Mikhail Spasskii, Lukas Sukharev, Alexey Sysoev, Olga Talysheva, Ilya Tatakov, Alexey Tegin, Maria Vinogradova.

Russia officially participates in Venice Biennale 2026 after two editions of absence

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.