"Man muss der Jury keine Träne nachweinen"
The entire jury of the Venice Biennale resigned shortly before the opening, prompting criticism of Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli accused Buttafuoco of pursuing a misguided "pacificist fantasy" by readmitting Russia to the six-month exhibition, calling it failed "side foreign policy." Commentators in German media, including Niklas Maak (FAZ) and Marcus Woeller (Die Welt), see the resignation as a symptom of a crisis in the art world, with the jury having acted as a "political tribunal" by pre-judging artists based on nationality, particularly regarding Israel. The Biennale leadership defended inclusion, but the standoff has caused significant "image damage." Separately, Dirk Knipphals (wochentaz) delivers a scathing review of Wolfram Weimer's first year as cultural policy commissioner, accusing him of empty rhetoric and failing to counter right-wing cultural politics. Juliane von Mittelstaedt (Der Spiegel) reports on Saudi Arabia's use of a spectacular new art museum in Riyadh as a stability narrative amid regional conflict.
These events matter because they reveal deep fractures in the art world's institutional frameworks. The Venice Biennale jury's resignation over political boycotts—and the subsequent replacement with a public prize—exposes the tension between art as a space for open dialogue and the pressure to take political stances. This crisis could reshape how major biennials handle geopolitical conflicts. Meanwhile, the critiques of German cultural policy and Saudi Arabia's cultural diplomacy highlight how art is increasingly weaponized for political legitimacy, raising urgent questions about the independence of cultural institutions and the role of art in democratic and authoritarian contexts alike.