The 61st Venice Biennale, the prestigious international art exhibition often called the "Olympics of the arts," has opened to significant controversy as Russia makes its first appearance since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and as calls grow for Israel to be excluded over the war in Gaza. The Biennale, held in Venice's canal-side gardens and the historic Arsenale, runs from 10 May to 22 November.

In a dramatic demonstration ahead of Saturday's public opening, the Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot and Femen, the feminist activist group founded in Ukraine, stormed through the Biennale's gardens, setting off smoke flares and chanting outside the Russian national pavilion. "Russia kills! Biennale exhibits!" they screamed, while posters declared: "Curated by Putin, dead bodies included." Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova described Russia's return as part of its hybrid warfare strategy, arguing that cultural presence is a tool Moscow uses to seek Western legitimacy alongside its military campaign. Security guards shut the pavilion's glass doors as police and a circling helicopter responded to the protest. The Russian pavilion's official commissioner, Anastasia Karneeva — whose father is deputy head of Rostec, Russia's state weapons producer, which is under sanctions — dismissed questions about the protest and Russia's invasion, saying simply: "This is our house, we come to our place."

The controversy has reverberated well beyond the protests on the ground. The European Commission has threatened to withdraw €2 million in funding, calling it "morally wrong" to allow Russia to "shine" on such a platform. Italy's culture minister has declined to attend the opening, though Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has refused to join the boycott. The Biennale's entire international jury resigned last week in protest over the participation of countries whose leaders face warrants from the International Criminal Court — a reference to both Russia and Israel. With no jury in place, major prizes including the prestigious Golden Lion will this year be decided by public vote, raising the possibility that either country could win. The Biennale's president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, defended the decision, describing the event as a "neutral space" and accusing critics of creating a "laboratory of intolerance" — then left a press conference before taking questions. Under pressure, the Russian pavilion will close to the general public from Saturday, with performances only screened externally.

Protest over Israel's inclusion has been equally pointed. A petition from the Art Not Genocide Alliance has gathered over 230 signatures from artists and curators participating in the Biennale. Demonstrators left the entrance of the Israeli exhibit blanketed in leaflets denouncing a "Genocide Pavilion," and further protests are planned. Israel's exhibit, by artist Belu-Simion Fainaru — whose installation "Rose of Nothingness" features a backwards-running clock, a frozen black rose, and a rain-dripping water basin — is housed not in the main gardens but in the Arsenale, officially because the Israeli pavilion is under renovation. Fainaru has described feeling a quiet boycott from fellow artists and staff at neighbouring pavilions, and says his Berlin gallery dropped him over his participation. Israel's foreign ministry has criticised what it called a "political jury" turning the Biennale into a venue for "anti-Israeli political indoctrination."

Amid the turmoil, Ukraine's own presence offers a stark counterpoint. Just inside the main entrance, a concrete sculpture of an origami deer by Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova hangs suspended from a crane. The work was originally installed in Pokrovsk, a city in eastern Donbas, when the front line was nearly 40 kilometres away. By 2024, Russian advances forced its evacuation. "We have a destroyed city that does not exist now," Kadyrova said. The deer, and the story behind it, encapsulates what is at stake in the broader debate: whether a global cultural institution can claim neutrality when the world it reflects is anything but.