Deaths in Venice: The Art Proletariat and the Solidarity Anti-Biennale
DE MUERTES EN VENECIA. EL PROLETARIADO DEL ARTE Y LA ANTI-BIENAL SOLIDARIA
Mariagrazia Muscatello's critical essay on the 2026 Venice Biennale describes an edition overshadowed by death—both literal, with the passing of curator Koyo Kouoh during the curatorial process, and symbolic—and a climate of unease reflecting contemporary tensions: geopolitical conflicts, the genocide in Palestine, and a crisis of legitimacy in art institutions. Muscatello analyzes how political activism at the Biennale—Palestinian flags, strikes, protest gestures—risks becoming a form of personal visibility and cultural marketing rather than genuine rupture, contrasting this with self-managed spaces like S.a.L.E. Docks that propose authentic alternative models. She denounces the precarious, feudal labor conditions in the art world, in stark contradiction with the progressive discourses it champions.