Latvian artists have launched a protest campaign against Russia's participation in the Venice Biennale
The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art and the country's national pavilion have launched a months-long protest action titled "Death in Venice" against Russia's inclusion in the 61st Venice Biennale, the Centre's team announced on Instagram. The campaign will run through 22 November, when the exhibition closes.
The team behind Latvia's pavilion — "Untamed Assembly: Backstage of Utopia" — is calling on visitors to come to Venice carrying a thematic symbol designed for the action by artist Krišs Salmanis. The graphic is available for free download from the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art's website and can be printed on clothing or any other surface.
A Kremlin wall in place of the Biennale logo
Salmanis's design replaces the Biennale's logo with an image of the Kremlin wall and recasts the institution's signature red as a reference to violence. According to the post, the organizers tie the Biennale's claim of institutional "neutrality" to a tacit endorsement of aggression.
The Biennale's red, the organizers write, "becomes a reminder of blood, violence, and the price paid by those whose reality" the institution's claim to neutrality, in their formulation, prefers to ignore.
The campaign's name is a direct reference to Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice. The organizers note that Mann's narrative dealt with the decline of an era and its values, and with the attempts of the city's authorities to suppress information about the real problems facing Venice.
How to take part
Participants are asked to share photographs and videos on social media using the hashtags #biennalearte2026 and #deathinvenice2026, and to tag the Latvian Pavilion and the Centre for Contemporary Art. Organizers say they will circulate the material as part of a shared statement by visitors and artists.
The action follows Latvia's earlier announcement that it would boycott the official opening of the 61st Biennale on 9 May. The exhibition's international jury, which had said in a statement of intent on 22 April that it would not consider for awards the pavilions of countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court charges, resigned collectively on 30 April. La Biennale di Venezia subsequently replaced the jury-selected Golden Lions with public-vote "Visitors' Lions," returning Russia and Israel to prize contention.
