The Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale was temporarily closed on the second day of the preview after the activist group Pussy Riot staged a powerful protest against the country’s inclusion in the prestigious art festival. Wearing pink balaclavas, protesters ran towards the Russian pavilion, gathering outside while lighting pink, blue and yellow flares. Punk music blasted through the crowds as demonstrators shouted slogans including “Blood is Russia’s Art” and “Disobey”.

At one stage, the group of around 50 activists, including members of the feminist protest movement Femen, attempted to enter the pavilion but were pushed back by police officers stationed at the entrance. Several protesters had slogans painted across their bodies and banners, including “Curated by Putin, dead bodies included” and “Russian art, Ukrainian blood”. A statue outside the pavilion was draped in a Ukrainian flag.

The activists moved through the Biennale gardens, often described as the ‘Olympics’ of the arts, dressed in black clothing and fluorescent pink balaclavas as security guards rushed to shut the pavilion’s glass doors. Smoke flares were set off while demonstrators punched the air and screamed: “Russia kills! Biennale exhibits!”

 

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Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova accused Russia of using culture at the Venice Biennale as part of its wider political strategy during the war in Ukraine.

“They’re drinking vodka and champagne in their pavilion, soaked in the blood of Ukrainian children,” Tolokonnikova said, arguing that Russia’s return to the internationally renowned exhibition formed part of its hybrid warfare campaign.

“It’s not just tanks and drones, murder and rape in Ukraine. It’s also culture, art, language…it’s the way (Russia) tries to conquer the West, and you guys just opened the doors to them.”

Around an hour after Pussy Riot’s protest dispersed, the Art Not Genocide Alliance staged a separate protest outside the Israeli pavilion in the Arsenale district. The pavilion was locked from the inside while demonstrators gathered outside to oppose Israel’s inclusion because of its war crimes in Gaza.

More than 200 participants in the Biennale have signed a letter demanding the cancellation of the Israeli pavilion, describing it as “a collective refusal to allow you to platform the Israeli state as it commits genocide”.