The entire jury of the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition has resigned, organisers said on Thursday, a week after the panel announced it would not hand out awards to artists from Russia or Israel.
The Biennale did not give a reason for the move, which marks a dramatic escalation in a dispute that has thrown one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art events into turmoil days before its May 9 opening. The five-strong jury, headed by Brazilian curator Solange Farkas, said last week that “in the defence of human rights” it would not consider works from countries whose leaders face charges at the International Criminal Court.
The only two countries affected were Russia and Israel, with the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin in relation to the war in Ukraine, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Gaza war.
The decision to snub the two nations was widely criticised in some quarters, with the Israeli artist showing at Venice, sculptor Belu Simion Fainaru, accusing the jury of racial discrimination and threatening legal action.
The event has been in the eye of a political and media storm since early March, when the organisers announced they were allowing Russia to return to the exhibition for the first time since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The Italian government has been highly critical of the decision while the European Commission has said it will terminate or suspend a 2 million euro grant if the Russian pavilion is reopened this year.
Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco has refused to back down, saying the festival was “a space of coexistence for the whole planet” without censorship.
Ratcheting up the pressure, the Culture Ministry on Wednesday dispatched its inspectors to Venice to obtain information about how Russia came to be readmitted, looking for any bureaucratic errors that could be used to rescind the invitation.
The Biennale did not criticise the jury for boycotting the Russian and Israeli artists, saying the panel, which also included Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma and Giovanna Zapperi, operated with “full autonomy and independence”.
However, the organisers have also announced that for the first time they would let visitors select their favourite artists from everyone on display, including Russia and Israel and would switch the award ceremony to the end of the event in November, instead of next week.
It was not immediately clear who would select the winners of the top Golden and Silver Lion awards or if works from Israel and Russia would now be back in contention.