Almost 200 artists, curators and artwork employees concerned on this 12 months’s Venice Biennale (9 Could–22 November) have signed a letter calling for Israel’s exclusion from the occasion. The Artwork Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) group, which is main the marketing campaign, says the letter was delivered to the biennale’s president and board as we speak.
The signatories write that “we, the undersigned, stand collectively as artists, curators and artwork employees in a collective refusal to permit you to platform the Israeli state because it commits genocide”. They add that they’re performing “in help of our fellow artists and cultural employees in Palestine, in solidarity with Palestine, and in profound hope of an finish to Zionist genocide and ongoing apartheid, and the rebirth of a free Palestine”.
The letter argues that Israeli actions have devastated Palestinian cultural life, writing that “Israeli violence additionally targets the artwork and tradition supposedly held sacrosanct by the Biennale”. The signatories add that “the Venice Biennale’s complicity with the tried destruction of Palestinian life should finish” and that “no artist or cultural employee needs to be requested to share a platform with this genocidal state”.
Among the many signatories are internationally recognised artists together with Alfredo Jaar, Yto Barrada, Rosana Paulino, Meriem Bennani and Cauleen Smith, together with curators corresponding to Binna Choi and Carles Guerra.
Since Hamas’s assault on 7 October 2023, which killed greater than 1,200 Israelis and through which greater than 250 individuals had been taken hostage, greater than 72,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed in Gaza in complete, in line with the Palestinian Ministry of Well being. It studies that greater than 550 of these individuals have been killed because the declaration of a ceasefire in October 2025.
The letter follows an earlier enchantment despatched by ANGA to the biennale’s organisers on 2 October 2025 calling for Israel’s exclusion from the 2026 exhibition, which the group says went unanswered. The alliance describes itself as a world group of artists, curators, writers and cultural employees who’ve come collectively to name for the exclusion of Israel on the Venice Biennale.
The group’s October letter to the biennale warned that failure to exclude Israel might result in a broader boycott of the exhibition by artists and cultural employees. “If the Biennale fails to fulfill this fundamental demand, ANGA will provoke a marketing campaign to convey a full artist and viewers boycott of the 61st Venice Biennale,” it says. The letter additionally says, “if the Israeli pavilion will not be excluded, ANGA will leverage the motion to make sure most reputational and financial penalties for the Biennale”.
A supply near ANGA tells The Artwork Newspaper that, in collaboration with main commerce unions, industrial motion may be organised throughout Italy across the opening of the biennale.
The same name launched by ANGA in 2024 gathered tens of hundreds of supporters. Though the biennale didn’t exclude Israel from that version, the Israeli pavilion by no means opened after its artist, Ruth Patir, stated she would hold it closed till a ceasefire and hostage launch settlement had been reached.
This 12 months, the Israeli authorities has reportedly added a contractual clause requiring the artist to make sure the exhibition stays open no matter protests.
Israel can be represented this 12 months by the Romanian-born sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru, who relies in Haifa. Fainaru tells The Artwork Newspaper in an announcement, “as an artist, I’m against cultural boycotts as I imagine within the significance of dialogue and alternate, particularly in troublesome occasions”. He provides, “my participation is a dedication to artwork as a secure house for open reflection. I hope that guests will interact with my work by itself phrases. Artwork ought to stay an area for dialogue, dissent, and complexity.”
One other concern that has angered activists is the placement of the Israeli pavilion this 12 months. Quite than occupying its everlasting web site within the Giardini—which stays closed for renovation—Israel will as a substitute exhibit within the Arsenale. “We additionally object to the truth that biennale administration explicitly supplied ‘to host’ Israel this 12 months within the Arsenale,“ an ANGA spokesperson tells The Artwork Newspaper. ”These short-term areas within the Arsenale are managed instantly by the biennale and there’s no excuse for providing that association … they might have instructed Israel to rent an area on the personal market, which might have been a extra typical association.”
ANGA’s letter comes because the Venice Biennale is already dealing with stress over its resolution to permit Russia to reopen its pavilion for the primary time because the nation’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The European Union has threatened to withdraw funding from the biennale, whereas on 12 March Italy’s tradition minister, Alessandro Giuli, referred to as for the ministry’s consultant on the biennale’s board, Tamara Gregoretti, to step down over the problem.
In 2024, the then tradition minister Gennaro Sangiuliano rejected ANGA’s calls to exclude Israel, calling the demand “unacceptable” and “shameful”. He added that the biennale “will at all times be an area of freedom, of conferences and dialogue, and never an area of censorship and intolerance”.
An ANGA spokesperson says that if Russia is excluded whereas Israel stays on the biennale, it could show a “clear double customary” strategy in direction of Israel.
In an announcement printed on its web site, the biennale says that “in response to the communications and requests for participation from International locations, La Biennale di Venezia rejects any type of exclusion or censorship of tradition and artwork”. The assertion continues: “La Biennale, like town of Venice, continues to be a spot of dialogue, openness, and inventive freedom, encouraging connections between peoples and cultures, with enduring hope for the cessation of conflicts and struggling.” The Venice Biennale organisers had been contacted for additional remark.
South Africa’s pavilion has additionally been impacted by the problem of Palestine this 12 months. The nation cancelled its participation after the artist Gabrielle Goliath refused to change her deliberate challenge that referenced violence in opposition to ladies in Gaza.
A complete of 99 nations are collaborating within the 2026 Venice Biennale. The organisers have beforehand stated they don’t have the authority to exclude any nation recognised by Italy. Palestine, which Italy doesn’t recognise as a state, has by no means had an official nationwide pavilion.
UPDATE 18/03/2026: This text has been up to date to incorporate an announcement from Belu-Simion Fainaru
