Russian invasion puts Ukraine’s Venice Biennale pavilion on hold

Pavlo Makov by The Fountain of Exhaustion mounted on the Oleh Mitasov’s house in Kharkiv, 1996. © Pavlo Makov. Courtesy of the artist

On Thursday morning, Ukrainians in various cities awoke to explosions as the Russian military initiated an invasion of the neighbouring country by land, sea and air. In the early hours of the assault, its implications for the Ukrainian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which opens in April 2022, might have seemed like an afterthought. But Russia’s total war on Ukraine promises to have total consequences, not just for the Russian stock market and the energy supply of central Europe, but also for the Ukrainian cultural sector. 

Before the end of the day on Thursday, the official Twitter account of the Ukrainian Pavilion published a press release and a Twitter thread, announcing that work on the pavilion has halted.

“At the moment this statement has been published, we are not in immediate danger, but the situation is critical and changes every minute. Presently, we are not able to continue working on the project of the pavilion due to the danger to our lives,” the statement reads. “All the international flights from and to Ukraine are canceled. Traveling around the country is risky. We are determined to represent Ukraine at the [Venice Biennale], but not everything depends on us. If the situation changes, and it is safe to continue our work and travel, we will be in Venice. We can not confirm yet that our project will be completed, but we can promise that we will do everything possible to save unique artwork produced by Pavlo Makov and our big team specially for the upcoming biennial during the past 5 months.”

The statement concludes with a plea for the international artistic community to use all of its leverage to stop the Russian invasion: “Guns may hurt our bodies, but culture changes our minds.”

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