Pro-Palestinian protest shutters Venice Biennale exhibitions, demands Israeli pavilion cancellation

Dozens of artists and cultural workers shut down Venice Biennale exhibitions Friday as a pro-Palestinian strike moved the Gaza fight from statements into the exhibition grounds themselves. The action hit the opening week of the 61st Venice Biennale, where the public run begins Saturday and continues through Nov. 22, after preview days on May 6, 7 and 8.

The 24-hour strike was called by the Art Not Genocide Alliance and backed by Biennalocene, Sale Docks, Mi Riconosci, Vogliamo Tutt’altro, ADL Cobas, USB and CUB. Organizers said more than 230 artists, curators and art workers signed a letter last month demanding that the Israeli pavilion be canceled. They framed the walkout as a refusal of “genocide normalization” in culture and a protest against the precarious labor conditions they say support the Biennale’s prestige.

A rally was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Friday on Viale Garibaldi near the Arsenale, where Israel is being represented this year by Romanian-born sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru, who is based in Haifa. The Israeli pavilion was shifted to the Arsenale because its permanent Giardini site remained closed for renovation, but that change did little to blunt the pressure surrounding the display. Fainaru has opposed cultural boycotts, saying he believes in dialogue and exchange.

The protest came after several days of turmoil around the 61st edition, including the late-April resignation of the Biennale’s five-person prize jury amid an escalating dispute over participation by Israel and Russia. That upheaval has collided with the decision to proceed with Koyo Kouoh’s posthumous curatorial vision. Kouoh, the first African woman appointed to curate the Venice Biennale, died in May 2025, and the 2026 exhibition is being realized under her planned title, In Minor Keys.

The shutdown underscored how sharply the war over Gaza has reached into elite cultural institutions. What once played out in letters, open appeals and boardroom arguments now has reached the exhibition floor, where activists have made the Biennale itself part of the conflict over who can claim neutrality during a geopolitical crisis.