Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24 and has killed an estimated 20,000 civilians, displaced more than one quarter of the population, and sent global food prices soaring, has also upended international festivals and exhibitions.
Just three days after war began, the artists representing Russia at the 59th Venice Biennale, Alexandra Sukhareva and Kirill Savchenkov, along with Lithuania-born curator Raimundas Malašauskas, quit the project, saying in their respective statements that the war made their plans untenable amid the human suffering in Ukraine. As a result, when the Biennale opened on April 23, the Russia Pavilion in the Giardini was shuttered. Meanwhile, the Ukraine Pavilion displayed the installation (1995/2022) by Kharkiv-based artist Pavlo Makov, and the Biennale hosted a special
