Yoshiko Shimada and BuBu de la Madeleine have signed the ‘An urgent call from artists and curators of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2026’.
The full text of the call is as follows.
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We are artists and curators invited to the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia by Koyo Kouoh. As cultural workers and human beings raised and based in a multiplicity
of localities around the globe, we express our solidarity with all people subject to rising forms of systemic oppression, inequalities and erasure, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, Sudan and Myanmar, as well as rampant violence, occupation and war in Cameroon, Congo, Cuba, Iran, Kashmir, Lebanon, Moçambique, Ukraine, Venezuela and too many other places. This is the world we live in, it is the world we make our work in, and it is the larger context within which the 61st Biennale will be seen and received.
We are committed to an active decolonial practice of anti-racist politics and human rights which is embedded in our work. We speak up in resistance to increased repression, censorship, and policing of cultural and intellectual spaces. Specifically, we have come together to object to the decision by La Biennale to exceptionally relocate the Israeli pavilion in the Arsenale. To insert the Israeli pavilion into spaces alongside the main exhibition, In Minor Keys, conceived by Koyo Kouoh, intrudes upon and goes directly against Kouoh’s curatorial vision, her curatorial statement, and the principles of Radical Solidarity she articulated so clearly in all her work. This will also introduce conditions of violence and fear through the military and police presence that will accompany the Israeli pavilion. This concerns us directly as artists in the exhibition. On March 13, 2026 we requested that La Biennale revoke this decision.
La Biennale has made a statement of neutrality and we submit in response that allowing governments that are actively committing war crimes, atrocities and genocide to participate is not neutral. A community of nations can only exist if states are sanctioned when they egregiously violate international law and human rights. As the largest and most visible art event in the world, a position taken by La Biennale has enormous impact. While it may be beyond the
power of an exhibition to bring justice to all our concerns, there are ethical lines that can be drawn, and actions that cannot be normalized.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry determined that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and this same determination has been made in
multiple assessments by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), Human Rights Watch, and leading Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, Israel. The atrocities committed by the Israeli government are well-documented, as is the structural and systemic apartheid regime of brutal attacks, killings and illegal annexations of land. The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 21 November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still in place. While these crimes are ongoing it is unconscionable for La Biennale to accommodate an Israeli pavilion.
The UN also reported on the direct complicity of other nations:(*1)
The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel. Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this livestreamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third States’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation.
La Biennale has chosen to exclude national pavilions in the past based on their unilateral military aggression or apartheid regimes. While certain exclusions (of South Africa 1968-1993, Russia 2022-2024) were made on the basis of international sanctions, La Biennale has also taken other positions when circumstances demanded. Notably, in 1974, La Biennale stood in solidarity with the people of Chile; all national pavilions were closed and the 1974 edition renamed itself “Freedom to Chile; for a democratic and anti-fascist culture”.
La Biennale established another compelling precedent with its 2022 statement excluding official Russian participation.(*2)
For those who oppose the current regime in Russia there will always be a place in the exhibitions of La Biennale. […] As long as this situation persists, La Biennale rejects any form of collaboration with those who […] have carried out or supported such a grievous act of aggression, and will therefore not accept the presence at any of its events of official delegations, institutions, or persons tied in any capacity to the Russian government.
We believe these principles hold true today, that they apply to Israel, Russia and the United States. There is a threshold beyond which participation in La Biennale should not be normalized. As in 2022, the current conditions demand that La Biennale di Venezia exclude any odicial delegation from current regimes committing war crimes, including Israel, Russia, and the United States.
The continuing absence of a Palestinian pavilion only heightens the inequality implicit in the accommodation of the Israeli pavilion.(*3)
We call on the President and the management of La Biennale to join us in making Biennale Arte 2026 a place where, as Koyo Kouoh wrote, “the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded.”
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(*1) https://www.un.org/unispal/document/special-rapporteur-report-gaza-genocide-a-collective-crime-20oct25/
(*2) https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/la-biennale-di-venezia-ukrainian-pavilion-biennale-arte?
(*3) Palestine has been recognized as a sovereign state by 157 of 192 UN member nations, Israel by 163.
