Buttafuoco: “The Biennale Is Autonomous. I Would Do the Russian Pavilion All Over Again”

Pietrangelo Buttafuoco says he would repeat the decision that placed the Venice Biennale at the center of a political dispute over the Russian Pavilion. “Everything. It was more than right and necessary for the institution I lead,” he said, insisting that none of the Biennale’s formal acts violated laws or regulations.

The Biennale president was speaking before the opening of the Venice Film Festival. He pointed to a 10% increase in box-office ticket sales compared with the previous edition and said the Biennale Arte began with a 20% increase compared with other editions, maintaining growth despite what he described as the hottest summer ever.

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Everything. It was more than right and necessary for the institution I lead. In all the formal and official acts, there is not a single comma that goes against laws and regulations.

Buttafuoco presented those figures as evidence of an institution he said had remained internationally important for 131 years. He also highlighted a new archive headquarters at the Arsenale, the revival of the Biennale’s print magazine, cooperation with Venice prisons and the Biennale On Air podcast, which he said would bring its offer closer to an international audience.

The Russian Pavilion dispute followed calls from Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani for the Biennale to address Russian dissent. Buttafuoco said a five-day programme dedicated to Pavel Florensky, a philosopher, theologian and mathematician executed by the Soviet regime in 1938, would go beyond what he called politically convenient dissent and address martyrdom.

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We are beyond dissent for political convenience. We are dealing with martyrdom, at the highest levels of metaphysics.

Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli had said in May that Putin had won at the Biennale. Buttafuoco rejected that assessment: “Putin did not win, art won.” He said the victory belonged to the institution’s history of looking toward the world and welcoming everyone, including during conflicts. He added that suspending the tradition of an Olympic truce would have been an act of impiety.

Asked about seeing Giuli at the festival, Buttafuoco distinguished between his official duty to welcome the minister and his longstanding friendship with Alessandro. He also said he does not publicly discuss contact with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

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Putin did not win, art won.