The international jury of the 61st Venice Biennale resigned in full on 30 April 2026, prompting organizers to scrap the traditional awards and hand voting to the public — a procedural rewrite that returns Russia and Israel, both ruled ineligible by the now-departed jury, to prize contention. La Biennale di Venezia announced the changes in a statement the same day.
According to the official statement, the decision was taken "with regard to the resignation of the international jury" and "the exceptional nature of the current international geopolitical situation." Organizers noted that a similar postponement was used during the 2021 Architecture Biennale because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What replaces the jury awards
The traditional jury-decided Golden Lions are out. In their place, the Biennale has introduced two new awards — the so-called Visitors' Lions: one for the best participant in the main exhibition, "In Minor Keys," and one for the best national participation.
Ticket-holders who visit both exhibition locations between 9 May and 22 November will be eligible to vote, with one ballot per category per visitor. The mechanism for collecting and counting those votes has not yet been disclosed.
Organizers stressed that all national pavilions are admitted to the running "on the basis of inclusivity and equal treatment," and that the Biennale must remain "a space of openness, dialogue and the absence of censorship."
Why the jury resigned
The five-member jury was selected by the late artistic director Koyo Kouoh, who died in May 2025. Its members — Solange Oliveira Farkas, founder of Videobrasil; Zoe Butt, a curator of contemporary Southeast Asian art; Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of MACBA in Barcelona; Marta Kuzma, dean of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and art historian and curator Giovanna Zapperi — announced their collective resignation in a joint statement on 30 April.
"On 30 April 2026, we, the international jury chosen by Koyo Kouoh, artistic director of the 61st La Biennale di Venezia 'In Minor Keys,' have resigned," the statement reads. The jurors said the decision followed from their earlier "statement of intent," published on 22 April 2026.
In that earlier document, the jury said it would not consider for awards national pavilions of countries whose political leaders have been charged by the International Criminal Court with war crimes or crimes against humanity. Media reports linked the move primarily to Russia and Israel.
Israel's foreign ministry rejected the position. In a post on X, the ministry said the jury had "turned the Biennale from an open artistic space […] into a spectacle of anti-Israeli political indoctrination."
The Biennale leadership had distanced itself from the jury's position before the resignation, saying the jurors acted autonomously and had full freedom in determining laureates, while reiterating its opposition to "any form of censorship or exclusion of art and culture." With the jury gone and the vote handed to visitors, those eligibility limits no longer apply.
How the Russian pavilion will operate
Russia's pavilion at the 61st Biennale will be physically open for only four days — from 5 to 8 May, during the preview shows reserved for industry professionals, Artslooker reports. During those days, performances will take place under the project title "The Tree Is Rooted In the Sky."
From 9 May until the close of the exhibition on 22 November, the building will be shut to the public. Recordings of the performances and additional documentation will be projected onto screens placed in the pavilion's windows, with no artists physically present.
According to correspondence obtained by the Italian outlet Open, that format was the result of negotiations between the Biennale's leadership and Anastasia Karneeva, the commissioner of the Russian pavilion. Karneeva, appointed in 2021 to an eight-year term, had written to Biennale director Andrea Del Mercato in 2025 requesting invitation letters to ease visa procedures for Russian artists. Del Mercato, per the same correspondence, assured her of "maximum readiness and attention."
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Earlier in 2026, Karneeva submitted a detailed pavilion project, catalog texts, and a request to restore the Russian pavilion's listing on the Biennale website and exhibition map, where it had been marked as Bolivia — the country to which the building had been leased in 2024. Open suggests that the pavilion's return was lobbied directly by Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, citing a letter of thanks Karneeva sent to the foundation.
International reaction
EU Culture Commissioner Glenn Micallef will not attend the opening on 9 May, citing the Russian pavilion. Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli has likewise declined, opting instead to travel to Lviv. Latvia has said it will boycott the opening, and Finland has indicated it will limit its participation if Russia is admitted.
The culture and foreign ministers of 22 countries have signed a joint protest against Russia's participation. Seventy-one delegates from 29 countries to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have called for the Russian pavilion to be cancelled, and more than 70 participating artists have written to the Biennale leadership opposing the participation of Russia, Israel, and the United States.
Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, has asked Italy not to issue visas to Russian participants. Ukraine has imposed sanctions on individuals involved in organizing the Russian pavilion and is awaiting Italian decisions on the matter.
The European Commission has begun a procedure to freeze or cancel its grant funding to the Biennale. If Russia's participation goes ahead unchanged, the Biennale risks losing a €2 million grant earmarked for the period through 2028.
The Biennale, replying to Minister Giuli, said there had been "no violation of the rules" in admitting Russia and that "the sanctions against the Russian Federation were fully observed." Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini criticized the position taken by Brussels and did not object to Russia's participation. Veneto regional president Alberto Stefani called the EU's actions "unacceptable," arguing that art should "facilitate moments of cultural dialogue, which can become opportunities to forge connections, especially when official diplomacy cannot find solutions."
Background
Russia has been a regular Venice Biennale participant since establishing its pavilion in 1914. Its planned exhibition at the 59th Biennale was cancelled on 27 February 2022, three days after the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. In 2024, Russia did not participate; the building was used to host an exhibition of South American artists organized by Bolivia's Ministry of Culture, Decolonization and Depatriarchalization. On 4 March 2026, the Biennale published the participants list for this year's edition, and Russia was on it.
The main exhibition, "In Minor Keys," will open on 9 May as originally planned. It will be realized by five collaborators chosen by Kouoh herself before her death — curators Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie-Hélène Pereira, and Rasha Salti, critic Siddhartha Mitter, and assistant Rory Tsapayi — with the family's approval.
Ukraine has participated in Venice since 2001. Its 2026 project, "Security Guarantees," is centered on a sculpture by Zhanna Kadyrova titled "Origami Deer," which will be displayed in public space — mounted on a truck crane on the lagoon embankment.
