Russia has cancelled its participation in the Venice Biennale after the artists and the pavilion curator pulled out in protest of the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Their statement comes after the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson pulled a show in Moscow, and the private Garage Museum announced it would cease programming for the time being.
Raimundas Malašauskas, the Lithuanian-born curator of the Russian pavilion, said: ‘I cannot advance on working on this project in light of Russia’s military invasion and bombing of Ukraine. This war is politically and emotionally unbearable’.
Kirill Savchenkow, one of the artists, wrote ‘there is no place for art when citizens of Ukraine are hiding in shelters, when Russian protesters are getting silenced’. The second artist due to represent Russia, Alexandra Sukhareva, said she was pulling out too. The commissioners have confirmed no replacements will be sought and the pavilion will be closed.
Kjartansson cancelled his show at the V-A-C Foundation in Moscow mid-run. ‘It is not possible to have this work continue as this horror begins’, he told Icelandic broadcaster RUV. ‘The work is about the beginnings of a Russia created after the Soviet Union. And that Russia ended yesterday. Now it has just become like a “fullblown” fascist state’.
Kjartansson’s show inaugurated the Moscow private institution’s new art centre, situated a short walk from the Kremlin. The centre is funded by Leonid Mikhelson, an oligarch with ties to President Putin, who was one of the many billionaires called to the Kremlin the day after Russia’s offensive. Santa Barbara saw Kjartansson embark on an durational performance to recreate an American soap that had proved a hit in post-Soviet Russia.
V-A-C said in a statement: ‘As an institution, GES-2 House of Culture cannot turn a blind eye to the tragic events we have all become witnesses to. GES-2 holds in equal respect the feelings of our audience and the decisions of the artists we work with. In line with this, there will be changes to our programme.’ The centre’s studios and public spaces will remain open, but V-A-C will not open anything at its other location, a palazzo in Venice.
The Garage Museum of Art, which is owned by oligarch Roman Abramovic and Dasha Zhukova, preempted any such artist boycott by ‘pausing’ its programme. The Polish artist Pawel Althamer had an installation showing just outside the private museum, with shows for Uzbek director and artist Saodat Ismailova, German artist Anne Imhof and Helen Marten, who is British, slated for 2022. Abramovic is reported to be flying to Belarus to assist in Ukraine-Russian peace negotiations today.
Preparations for all shows would stop ‘until the human and political tragedy that is unfolding in Ukraine has ceased,’ Anton Belov, the institution’s director, said in a statement. It added that it would ‘fulfil our obligations to the artists’.
The Calvert Journal, the London-based arts and culture website launched by Russian economist Nonna Materkova through her foundation Calvert 22, also announced it would cease publication ‘until further notice.’ Covering Russia and eastern Europe from a liberal perspective, in a social media post editor-in-chief Nadia Beard said ‘As Russia commits acts of war in Ukraine, we cannot continue our work covering the arts like business as usual. We are against this war and call for its end’.
Stephen Brooks, CEO of Phillips auction house, owned by Mercury Group, Russia’s largest luxury retail company, released a statement alongside an image of the Ukrainian flag, stating ‘We at Phillips unequivocally condemn the invasion of Ukraine. Along with the rest of the art world, we have been shocked and saddened by the tragic events unfolding. We call for an immediate cessation of all hostilities in the strongest possible terms.’
