Russia hands over the pavilion at the Venice Biennale to Bolivia

Russian pavilion

Cyril S via Wikimedia Commons

A group exhibition of artists from Bolivia will be held in the Russian pavilion of the Venice Biennale. It is organized by the Ministry of Culture, Decolonization and Depatriarchalization of Bolivia within the framework of cultural cooperation with Russia, reports The Art Newspaper.

For the 60th anniversary of the biennial, the Multinational State of Bolivia received permission from the Russian government to use the building for the entire duration of the event – from April 20 to November 24.

The exhibition is called “Looking to the past-future, we step forward“. More than two dozen artists from Bolivia and other South American countries are involved in the project. The curator is the Ministry of Culture, Decolonization and Depatriarchalization, and the vice minister is responsible for the event Juan Carlos Cordero Nina.

“The project unites artists from Bolivia and friendly countries of Latin America and is an opportunity to share and demonstrate the brotherhood and joy that unites us with these countries, because we are united by a common indigenous origin and vocation to “Live well” in harmony and equality with each other and with our “mother earth”– the organizers told the Italian publication Il Sole 24 Ore.

Recently, the country started cooperation with Russia. In March of this year, Bolivia signed agreements on cultural cooperation, lithium mining and nuclear research between the countries, and the president Louis Arce congratulated the Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin with victory in the presidential elections on March 15-17.

As the publication notes, referring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with the Minister of Culture, Decolonization and Depatriarchalization of Bolivia Esperanza Guevara “was held in the spirit of friendship and mutual understanding characteristic of Russian-Bolivian relations” within the framework of “continuing their interaction in the cultural and humanitarian sphere”.

Back in 2023, Bolivia signed a lithium agreement with the Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom on the use of methyl reserves. Last week, the director of the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency said that the research reactor will be launched with the participation of Russian experts in 2025.

Russia at the Venice Biennale

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia on the territory of Ukraine, the aggressor country has not participated in the Venice Biennale. Lithuanian curator Raimundas Malašauskas and Russian artists Oleksandra Sukhareva and Kirill Savchenkov have given up on the Russian pavilion after February 24, 2022.

The organizers of the biennale had no influence on the exclusion of the representatives of Russia, according to them, it was the decision of the Russian government. Although representatives of the exhibition said that they would not allow “persons connected with the Russian government” to participate, in 2024 some countries are inviting “good Russians”.

Austria will be represented at the 60th Venice Biennale by the Russian artist Anna Ermolaeva with the exhibition project “Swan Lake Rehearsal”. Ukrainian ballerina and choreographer Oksana Sergeeva took part in the preparation for the exhibition. She used to run a ballet school in Cherkasy, but after the full-scale invasion began in 2022, she moved to Austria.

The Russian pavilion was designed in 1914 by the architect and founder of the “non-Russian style” Oleksiy Shchusev. He began as an architect of the tsarist era, and later created the Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square.

In 2019, the Russian art and exhibition company Smart Art signed a contract to manage the pavilion for ten years. Its co-owners are Lavrov’s daughter Kateryna Vinokurova and Anastasia Karneeva, the daughter of former FSB general Mykola Volobuyev, currently the deputy general director of the Russian state defense contractor Rostec.