DUBAI: Israel has decided not to participate in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, with officials from the Ministry of Culture reportedly citing the need to renovate Israel’s pavilion as the reason.
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the decision has sparked some criticism.
Idit Amihai, the director of the Institute for Israeli Art, said: “This year of all years they have to renovate and decide not to participate by choice? It would be one thing if we weren’t invited. Now when we’re being ostracized is precisely the time for us to take part.”
In April, during the Venice Art Biennale, Israeli artist Ruth Patir shut down her national pavilion saying that she will only reopen it when a “ceasefire agreement happens” between Israel and Hamas.
Patir said in a statement on Instagram at the time: “I feel that the time for art is lost and I need to believe it will return.”
In February, thousands of people, including artists, curators and museum directors, signed an online appeal calling for Israel to be excluded from this year’s art fair and accusing the country of “genocide” in Gaza.
“Any official representation of Israel on the international cultural stage is an endorsement of its policies and of the genocide in Gaza,” said the online statement by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) collective.
ANGA said the Venice Biennale had previously banned South Africa over its apartheid policy of white minority rule and excluded Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said the appeal was an “unacceptable, as well as shameful ... diktat of those who believe they are the custodians of truth, and with arrogance and hatred, think they can threaten freedom of thought and creative expression.”
