In October 2025, after confirmation of Israel's inclusion in the 61st International Art Exhibition, the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) began circulating the below letter among participants and workers of the Venice Biennale.
ANGA’s call responds to the appeal issued by Palestinian civil society to challenge the normalisation of Israeli apartheid and occupation within international cultural platforms. In this context, the Venice Biennale cannot be exempt from scrutiny.
The following letter calls on the leadership of La Biennale di Venezia to exclude Israel from the 2026 exhibition. It has been signed by 182 artists, curators and art workers involved in this year’s Biennale and formally delivered to the President and Board of La Biennale di Venezia.
To the directors of the Venice Biennale,
ANGA addressed you on 2 October, 2025, demanding the exclusion of Israel from the 2026 Biennale. As Zionist atrocities continue to mount, you have yet to respond. Now we, the undersigned, stand together as artists, curators and art workers in a collective refusal to allow you to platform the Israeli state as it commits genocide. We do this in support of our fellow artists and cultural workers in Palestine, in solidarity with Palestine, and in profound hope of an end to Zionist genocide and ongoing apartheid, and the rebirth of a free Palestine.
In 2024, the outrage against the inclusion of a genocidal state in the art Biennale was so strong that the Israel pavilion was forced to close. As we reach an appalling anniversary—two and a half years of open genocide against Palestine—and 77 years after the Nakba, the Israeli state once again seeks the legitimation of the Biennale to masquerade as a creator instead of a destroyer of life and culture.
We remind you that Israeli violence also targets the art and culture supposedly held sacrosanct by the Biennale: Zionist forces kill, jail and persecute Palestinian artists and cultural workers, raze museums, archives, cultural centres, schools, universities, libraries, galleries, historical buildings and monuments to the ground (Rana Anani, JPS, 2024), and slaughter artists, musicians, poets, journalists and writers. This is an attempted annihilation of not just the Palestinian people but Palestinian culture.
The Venice Biennale’s complicity with the attempted destruction of Palestinian life must end. No artist or cultural worker should be asked to share a platform with this genocidal state. As long as Israel exists by means of genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid, it must not be represented at the Venice Biennale. Genocide cannot be tolerated by an institution that aims to investigate and celebrate the human values embodied by art. Let your actions reflect this obvious truth.
Signed,
NATIONAL PARTICIPATIONS & COLLATERAL EVENTS
Caroline Dumalin, Belgian pavilion curator
Miet Warlop, Belgian pavilion artist
Rosana Paulino, Brazil pavilion artist
Veneta Androva, Bulgarian pavilion artist
Gery Georgieva, Bulgaria pavilion artist
Maria Nalbantova, Bulgarian pavilion artist
Rayna Teneva, Bulgarian pavilion artist
Martina Yordanova, Bulgaria pavilion curator
Elise Lammer, Catalonia in Venice curator
Claudia Pagès Rabal, Catalonia in Venice artist
Jakub Jansa, Czech & Slovak pavilion artist
Alex Selmeci & Tomáš Kocka Jusko, Czech & Slovak pavilion artist
Peter Sit, Czech & Slovak pavilion curator
Marina Xenofontos, Cyprus pavilion artist
Dries Verhoeven, Dutch pavilion artist
Rieke Vos, Dutch pavilion curator
Tawna Collective, Ecuador pavilion artists
Armen Agop, Egypt pavilion artist
Merike Estna, Estonia pavilion artist
Jenna Sutela, Finland pavilion artist
Yto Barrada, France pavilion artist
Unnar Örn, Iceland pavilion curator
Georgina Jackson, Ireland pavilion curator
Isabel Nolan, Ireland pavilion artist
Binna Choi, Korea pavilion curator
Inga Lace, Latvia pavilion curator
Adomas Narkevičius, Latvia pavilion curator
Eglė Budvytytė, Lithuania pavilion artist
Aline Bouvy, Luxembourg pavilion artist
Stilbé Schroeder, Luxembourg pavilion curator
Charlie Cauchi, Malta pavilion artist
Margerita Pulè, Malta pavilion curator
Artivism for Critical Thinking, Nauru National pavilion artists
Tori Wrånes, Nordic pavilion artist
Issela Ccoyllo, Perú pavilion curator
Sara Flores, Perú pavilion artist
Matteo Norzi, Perú pavilion curator
Bogna Burska, Poland pavilion artist
Ewa Chomicka, Poland pavilion curator
Daniel Kotowski, Poland pavilion artist
Jolanta Woszczenko, Poland pavilion curator
Alexandre Estrela, Portugal pavilion artist
Sophia Al-Maria, Qatar pavilion artist
Bugarin + Castle, Scotland pavilion artist
Martin Baraga, Nonument Group, Slovenia pavilion artist
Nika Grabar, Nonument Group, Slovenia pavilion artist
Miloš Kosec, Nonument Group, Slovenia pavilion artist
Nazira Karimi, Turandot collateral exhibition artist
Orian Barki, If All Time Is Eternally Present collateral exhibition artist
Meriem Bennani, If All Time Is Eternally Present collateral exhibition artist
Chiara Carrera, If All Time Is Eternally Present collateral exhibition curator
Tai Shani, If All Time Is Eternally Present collateral exhibition artist
IN MINOR KEYS
Sabian Baumann, In Minor Keys artist
Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, In Minor Keys curator
Carolina Caycedo, In Minor Keys artist
BuBu de la Madeleine, In Minor Keys artist
Nolan Oswald Dennis, In Minor Keys artist
Rana Elnemr, In Minor Keys artist
Joy Episalla, In Minor Keys artist
Theo Eshetu, In Minor Keys artist
Rachel Fallon, In Minor Keys artist
Sofía Gallisá Muriente, In Minor Keys artist
Sohrab Hura, In Minor Keys artist
Alfredo Jaar, In Minor Keys artist
Mohammed Joha, In Minor Keys artist
Nina Katchadourian, In Minor Keys artist
Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, In Minor Keys artist
Florence Lazar, In Minor Keys artist
Lugas a dudas, In Minor Keys artists
Alice Maher, In Minor Keys artist
Hagar Ophir, In Minor Keys artist
Thania Petersen, In Minor Keys artist
Rajni Perera, In Minor Keys artist
Alan Phelan, In Minor Keys artist
Tabita Rezaire, In Minor Keys artist
Rasha Salti, In Minor Keys curator
Marigold Santos, In Minor Keys artist
Carrie Schneider, In Minor Keys artist
Hala Schoukair, In Minor Keys artist
Cauleen Smith, In Minor Keys artist
Himali Singh Soin, In Minor Keys artist
David Soin Tappeser, In Minor Keys artist
Vera Tamari, In Minor Keys artist
Celia Vásquez Yui, In Minor Keys artist
Kemang Wa Lehulere, In Minor Keys artist
Carrie Yamaoka, In Minor Keys artist
Gala Porras-Kim, Applied Arts pavilion artist
BIENNALE ART WORKERS
Angela Abiodun, art worker
David Angeli, art worker
Jennie Bergsli, art worker
MingJou Chen, art worker
Antonia Eckardt, art worker
Erwan Ha Kyoon Larcher, art worker
Dengling Levine, art worker
Leda Maiello, art worker
NERO Editorial Team, art worker
Noemi Palumbo, art worker
Marie Popall, art worker
Vittorio Porcelli, art worker
Giorgia de Santi, art worker
Robert Thomas van den Berg, art worker
Fernando Belfiore, Austria pavilion art worker
Stefan Marin Schneider, Austria pavilion art worker
Meg Bagnall, British pavilion art worker
Dorothy Price, British pavilion art worker
Louli Michaelidou, Cyprus pavilion art worker
Simomo Bouj, Dutch pavilion art worker
Maarten Heijnens, Dutch pavilion art worker
Diane Mahín, Dutch pavilion art worker
Maya Mertens, Dutch pavilion art worker
Lisen Pousette, Dutch pavilion art worker
Olivia Rivière, Dutch pavilion art worker
Harald Stojan, Dutch pavilion art worker
Celeste Burlina, Finland pavilion art worker
Sara Mathiasson, Finland pavilion art worker
Vanda Skácalová, Finnish pavilion art worker
Beth von Undall, Finland pavilion art worker
Maria Wrang-Rasmussen, Estonia pavilion art worker
Greta Thorkelsdottir, Iceland pavilion art worker
Cian O'Brien, Ireland pavilion art worker
Annamaria Ajmone, Italy pavilion art worker
Veza Fernandez, Italy pavilion art worker
Giulia Gaibisso, Italy pavilion art worker
Toni Steffens, Italy pavilion art worker
Erika Lastovskyte, Lithuania pavilion art worker
Marija Olšauskaitė, Lithuania pavilion art worker
Eugene Hannah Park, Korean pavilion art worker
Asiana Jurca Avci, Slovenia pavilion art worker
Seraphin Reich, Switzerland pavilion art worker
Freya Dooley, Wales pavilion art worker
Avital Beirach Barak, In Minor Keys art worker
Tobias Koch, In Minor Keys art worker
Fahad Mayet, In Minor Keys art worker
Nour Kamel, In Minor Keys art worker
Nat Raha, In Minor Keys art worker
ANONYMOUS
The below 2026 participants chose to sign anonymously in fear of possible physical, political or legal harms from signing publicly. The current climate surrounding pro-Palestine solidarity has created a heightened environment of repression; anonymity was therefore offered as a necessary measure to protect signatories while ensuring their voices could still be counted.
