On March 13, a group of seventy-four artists and curators participating in the main exhibition of the Biennale sent a letter to its director, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, and to the Biennale’s management, requesting that they revoke the decision to relocate the Israeli Pavilion to the Arsenale, in proximity to the central exhibition “In Minor Keys,” conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh. The letter refers to previous instances in which La Biennale di Venezia excluded national pavilions in response to political conditions, including South Africa (1968–93), Russia (2022–24), and the suspension of all national pavilions in 1974 in protest of the Chilean dictatorship. It calls for the exclusion of states currently accused of war crimes, including Israel, Russia, and the United States.

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In refusing the spectacle of horror, the time has come to listen to the minor keys, to tune in sotto voce to the whispers, to the lower frequencies; to find the oases, the islands, where the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded.

—Curatorial statement by Koyo Kouoh, “In Minor Keys,” 2025

We are artists and curators invited by Koyo Kouoh to the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. 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 to 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 (the title of a summit she hosted in 2024) that 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, La Biennale and the positions it takes have 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 by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, 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 on November 21, 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:

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 live-streamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third States’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation.1

La Biennale has chosen to exclude the pavilions of certain nations in the past based on these nations’ unilateral military aggression or support for apartheid. While certain exclusions (of South Africa from 1968 to 1993, and Russia from 2022 to 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 was renamed “Freedom to Chile: For a Democratic and Anti-fascist Culture.”

La Biennale established another compelling precedent with its 2022 statement excluding official Russian participation:

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.2

We believe these principles hold true today, and 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 official 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.”

51.  IONE for Pauline Oliveros

52.  Raed Yassin

53.  Anonymous artist

54.  Anonymous artist

55.  lugar a dudas

56.  Amina Saoudi

57.  Anonymous artist

58.  Johannes Phokela

59.  Rory Tsapayi

60.  Anonymous artist

61.  Carrie Yamaoka

62.  Joy Episalla

63.  Zoe Leonard

64.  fierce pussy

65.  Anonymous artist

66.  Ayrson Heráclito

67.  Berni Searle

68.  Anonymous artist

69.  Theo Eshetu

70.  Anonymous artist

71.  Nancy Brooks Brody Estate

72.  Edouard Duval-Carrié

73.  Denniston Hill

74. Eustáquio Neves