The previous biennial opened two months after the invasion of Ukraine. The Lithuanian curator and Russian artists who were to exhibit had withdrawn. The biennial subsequently announced that as long as the invasion lasts, ‘official delegations, institutions or persons affiliated in any way with the Russian government’ are not welcome at the exhibition.
Russia has now invited Bolivia to its pavilion. The South American country does not have its own building in the Giardini, the main location of the biennale. This will not be charity, but a diplomatic decision. Russia would like to tap Bolivia’s lithium reserves in the future, which is sometimes called ‘white gold’. In 2023, Bolivia has already signed an agreement with the Russian state-owned company Rosatom to mine lithium.
Mutual understanding
According to a press release from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Esperanza Guevara, the Bolivian minister of ‘cultures, decolonization and depatriarchalization’, allegedly telephoned Russian minister Sergei Lavrov in March. According to the brief message, they did this ‘in the spirit of friendship and mutual understanding that is typical of the Russian-Bolivian relationship’. During the phone call they also reportedly discussed “continued interaction in the cultural and humanitarian sector.”
The fact that a national pavilion in the Giardini is loaned to another country is not unique, but it is very rare. For example, last year Estonia had the opportunity to exhibit in the Dutch pavilion. That was a gesture ‘to welcome younger nations to the center of the Biennale’, which should also lead to ‘closer cultural ties between the two countries’. In an earlier edition, France and Germany exchanged buildings once.
Other exhibition
The 230 square meter Russian pavilion will host the Bolivian exhibition Looking to the futurepast, we are treading forward are organized, in which 26 artists from several South American countries participate.
It is notable that another Bolivian exhibition was announced on the biennale’s website in February. It was to be composed by architect Paola Pisanelli Nero and was called Abya Yala Desde la Patria Grande. The curator is now listed as ‘Ministry of Culture of the plurinational state of Bolivia’. At least one of the artists from this group exhibition has also since dropped out. The reason for these adjustments has not been disclosed.
Bolivia’s participation in the biennial was already controversial last time. The curator and the artists were then accused of nepotism and plagiarism, as another curator and two other artists had previously been invited to represent the country. They argued that the selection for the Bolivian participation in the biennial should from now on be a process ‘of absolute transparency’. The 60th Venice Biennale opens to the public on April 20.
