Pro-Palestinian strike shutters Venice Biennale exhibitions amid Gaza protests

The Venice Biennale’s marquee exhibitions were shuttered Friday as pro-Palestinian demonstrators mounted a 24-hour cultural strike that organizers said was the first of its kind inside the festival. Art Not Genocide Alliance, known as ANGA, called the action during the opening week of the 61st Venice Biennale, which runs until November 22, and planned a rally for 4:30 p.m. on Viale Garibaldi near the Arsenale.

The shutdown landed in a week already marked by disruption and open conflict over who gets to stand behind the world’s most visible art institution. ANGA said the strike was backed by Biennalocene, Sale Docks, Mi Riconosci, Vogliamo Tutt’altro, Associazione Difesa Lavoratori, Unione Sindacale di Base and Confederazione Unitaria di Base. More than 230 artists, curators and art workers had signed a letter last month demanding that the Israeli pavilion be cancelled. Protesters distributed leaflets, wore keffiyehs and Palestinian flags, and faced security and police outside the site.

At the center of the dispute was Israel’s participation in the Biennale despite the war in Gaza. ANGA and allied groups denounced what they called “artwashing” and “genocide normalisation,” arguing that cultural prestige should not insulate a state at war from protest. Israel was represented this year by Belu-Simion Fainaru, a Romanian-born sculptor based in Haifa, whose exhibit had been moved to the Arsenale after Israel’s permanent site in the Giardini was closed for renovation. Fainaru said he opposed cultural boycotts and supported dialogue and exchange.

The pressure had been building for days. On Wednesday, more than 200 people protested outside the temporary Israeli pavilion, while around 60 artists from the main Biennale exhibition took part in a daily “Solidarity Drone Chorus” inspired by Gazan composer Ahmed Muin. That same day, Pussy Riot and FEMEN demonstrated outside the Russian pavilion and forced it to close temporarily.

The Biennale’s prize jury also resigned amid disputes over the participation of Israel and Russia, and the European Union cut funding over Russia’s role. The opening week has turned the festival into a test of whether elite cultural institutions can still claim neutrality while war reshapes the conditions under which art is shown, boycotted and defended.

The confrontation echoed the 2024 decision by Israeli artist Ruth Patir to keep Israel’s pavilion closed until a ceasefire and hostage-release agreement could be reached. In Venice this year, the question was no longer whether politics belonged in the Biennale, but who had the power to define cultural legitimacy while Gaza remained under fire.