2024-05-15
The number of sanctions increases with each day of Russia's invasion in Ukraine. And the world of culture and art is inevitably affected by them, too. Art events and exhibitions are cancelled or postponed for an indefinite period of time. Individual artists experience repercussions as well, whilst the international art community excludes Russians from events and breaks up previously established collaborations.
Raimundas Malašauskas has resigned from his position as the curator of the Russian pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale. The official statement, published, i.a., on the Biennial Foundation website, says that Malašauskas does not agree to participate in the project in the light of the Russian occupation of Ukrainian teritory. Russian contemporary artists, Alexandra Sukhareva and Kirill Savchenkov, who were to represent Russia at the Biennial, have also withdrawn from presenting their works.
Moreover, preparations for the presentation of the Ukrainian Pavilion were suspended. The curators and the artist Pavlo Makov have decided to suspend their work on the exhibition due to the rapidly developing critical situation in Ukraine and the threat to their own and their loved ones' lives. The organizers, expressing their deep sorrow and hope for the end of the devastating Russian invasion, call for solidarity with Ukraine.
An open letter against the war with Ukraine was signed by more than 17,000 Russian artists. The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow has halted the preparation of exhibitions by Anne Imhof, Helen Marten and other artists of international rank. According to the decision of the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, his exhibition "Santa Barbara," presented in the newly opened Moscow House of Culture GES-2, will also be closed to the public. Kjartansson stated that "presenting this work is not possible while the horror has begun [in Ukraine]."
Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine has also sparked turbulent discussions on cultural exchange and the loan and exhibition of Russian works at such institutions as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In the face of Kremlin actions, condemned by the European art community, the Department of Culture has initiated talks with the institution that currently presents an exhibition on Russian imperial jeweler Peter Carl Faberé. Meanwhile, France's Matisse Museum has announced its decision to withdraw its loan of 280 works of the master for the Matisse by Matisse exhibition planned for late March in Bejing. France has suspended all collaborations with Chinese cultural institutions in response to China's political ties with Russia.