The international jury of the 61st Venice Biennale has quit en masse a day after culture ministry inspectors arrived on site. This throws the awards process into disarray with the Foundation replacing the jury award process with a visitor vote.
The drama playing out at the Venice Biennale escalated dramatically on Thursday when the entire international jury of the 61st International Art Exhibition resigned. This came less than 24 hours after Italian culture ministry inspectors descended on the Foundation to gather information about its decision to allow Russia’s pavilion to reopen.
The jury — composed of president Solange Farkas, Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma and Giovanna Zapperi — tendered their collective resignation. The Venice Biennale Foundation confirmed the resignation in a formal statement. No detailed explanation was given, but the timing left little room for ambiguity.
In response, the Foundation announced an entirely new awards mechanism. The traditional Lions — awarded to the best participant and best national participation in the exhibition — will now be decided not by an expert jury but by visitors to the show. This creates two new Visitors’ Lions to replace the suspended jury prizes of Golden and Silver Lions. The awards ceremony, previously scheduled for the opening day of 9 May, has been moved to 22 November, the final day of the exhibition.
Critically, the Foundation confirmed that the ceremony will be open to all national participations on the official list — Russia and Israel included, despite the controversy surrounding both.
Meloni: “I’m a little lost”
Premier Giorgia Meloni, speaking on Thursday, found herself in the unusual position of learning about the jury’s resignation as she walked downstairs. “I can’t tell you about the jury’s resignation, because I read it on my way downstairs,” she said. “I can’t say if it’s related to the issue of sending the inspectors. I’m a little lost on the dynamics of this affair.”
Her position on the underlying dispute, however, remained consistent. The government had made clear from the outset that it disagreed with the Foundation’s decision to readmit Russia’s pavilion for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “I’ll stick to my initial position,” Meloni said. “The government declared it didn’t agree with the choice regarding the Russian pavilion, and the Biennale is an autonomous body, and Buttafuoco is a very capable person. I wouldn’t have made this choice in his place.”
On the question of whether despatching ministry inspectors to the Biennale amounted to a hostile act towards Foundation President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, Meloni was careful to distance herself from the decision. “Regarding the dispatch of inspectors, I think the right person to ask is Minister Giuli, because I presume he made this decision. I haven’t had a chance to discuss it with him.”
