Venice Biennale chief defends Russian pavilion return

Excluding Russia would have betrayed the 131-year-old institution’s tradition of welcoming everyone, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco has said Venice Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco has defended his decision to reopen Russia’s pavilion at the event, saying “art won” despite EU pressure and Brussels stripping the exhibition of €2 million in funding.In early March, the Venice Biennale announced Russia’s return despite the Ukraine conflict, Moscow’s standoff with Brussels, and unprecedented EU sanctions.Russia, which has owned one of the exhibition’s oldest pavilions since 1914, went on to stage a show titled ‘The Tree Is Rooted in the Sky’ there in May, bringing together more than 50 young musicians, poets, and philosophers from Russia and other countries. Russian cultural envoy Mikhail Shvydkoy called the exhibition proof that attempts by Western political elites to “cancel” Russian culture had failed. Speaking to Corriere della Sera in an interview earlier this week, Buttafuoco defended his decision to allow the Russian pavilion and said the Biennale had acted within the law despite clashes with the Italian government and the European Commission. Asked whether he would do it all ag...