The 2026 Venice Art Biennale is proceeding with a posthumous main exhibition, "In Minor Keys," curated by the late Cameroonian-born artistic director Koyo Kouoh, who died in May 2025. The event features 100 national participations, including seven first-time countries, and has reinstated Russia's pavilion after its voluntary withdrawal following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The Biennale's decision to allow Russia's return has sparked a major political controversy, with the European Commission threatening to suspend €2 million in funding and prompting internal disagreement within Italy's government. The Russian pavilion's commissioner has close ties to the Russian state security apparatus, leading to accusations that the participation is an attempt to whitewash Russia's international image, a point fiercely argued by critics like Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.