Cultural workers and participants at the Venice Biennale plan to go on strike later this week (8 May) in protest at Israel’s participation in the event. The strike action, due to take place during the opening week of the 61st Biennale (until 22 November), will be organised by the Art Not Genocide Alliance group (ANGA). A rally is planned on the city’s Viale Garibaldi, a thoroughfare near the Arsenale site, at 4:30pm on Friday.
“On 8 May, a 24-hour strike of the cultural sector has been called by ANGA, Biennalocene, Sale Docks, Mi Riconosci, Vogliamo Tutt’altro, and other national and local cultural grassroots organisations,” say ANGA in a statement. The Italian trade unions Associazione Difesa Lavoratori (ADL Cobas), Unione Sindacale di Base and Confederazione Unitaria di Base are also backing the strike, says ANGA.
Last month ANGA sent a letter to the Biennale management which was signed by more than 230 artists, curators and art workers involved in this year’s Venice Biennale. The letter demanded the cancellation of the Israeli pavilion. “The strike is a collective refusal of genocide normalisation in culture and, of the precarious labour conditions the Biennale is built on. ANGA calls on signatory artists, curators, and art workers to close their pavilions and venues,” the statement adds. Venice Biennale management was contacted for comment.
Since Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis and in which more than 250 people were taken hostage, more than 72,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed in Gaza in total, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israel is represented this year by the Romanian-born sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru, who is based in Haifa. Rather than occupying its permanent site in the Giardini—which remains closed for renovation—Israel will instead exhibit in the Arsenale. Fainaru told The Art Newspaper that “as an artist, I am opposed to cultural boycotts as I believe in the importance of dialogue and exchange, especially in difficult times”.
The planned strike action makes up part of a chaotic build-up to the Biennale’s 61st edition. Last week, the Biennale’s entire five-person prize jury resigned amid an escalating dispute over the participation of Israel and Russia at this year’s event. The jury had said it would exclude artists from countries whose leaders are subject to arrest warrants for crimes against humanity—a decision that was understood to be aimed at Russia and Israel.
ANGA adds that “the controversy over Russia's presence at this year's Biennale makes the institution's double standards impossible to ignore”. The Russian pavilion is due to remain open for three days during the Biennale preview week. The country’s involvement in the Biennale led to threats by the European Union to withdraw funding from the event.