Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the president of the Venice Biennale, has criticized the European Union’s decision to withdraw funding for the event, saying that complying with the EU’s demand to exclude Russian artists from the biennale would undermine its autonomy and freedom of expression, Reuters reports.
The EU announced this week that it had decided to withdraw a two million euro grant from the Venice Biennale. This is in response to the exhibition organizers’ decision to allow Russian artists to return despite the ongoing brutal war in Ukraine. Pietrangelo said that the EU was a companion who had walked the same path with the biennale, but is now leaving the event for purely political, illegal and uncultural reasons.
The European Commission said the grant was cancelled because EU taxpayers’ money should support initiatives that uphold the values of democracy and freedom, which Russia clearly does not currently embody.
The Venice Biennale is held every other year, and
organizers rejected the bloc’s argument, saying the art world should be a neutral place for dialogue.
The biennale also said that its film projects, which are in no way related to Russia’s participation in the art fair, had also received EU funding.
Butafucco said that by complying with EU requirements, the biennale would be betraying the principles of autonomy, freedom of expression, creativity, research and imagination that have been the foundation of the institution for 131 years.
After the bloc’s announcement of the withdrawal of funding, the biennale said it would appeal the decision, while stressing that the loss of EU funding would not have a significant impact on the exhibition’s finances.
Read also: Loud protests erupt at Venice Biennale over Russian participation