ヴェネツィア・ビエンナーレ セントラル・パビリオン、2022年 撮影：ART iT
2026年3月31日、開幕を5月に控える第61回ヴェネツィア・ビエンナーレに参加するアーティストおよびキュレーター有志は、同月13日にヴェネツィア・ビエンナーレ事務局に対して、第61回展へのイスラエル館の公式参加許可を撤回するよう要請した旨を公に発表した。アーティストおよびキュレーター有志は、パレスチナ、スーダン、ミャンマーにおけるジェノサイドおよび民族浄化、カメルーン、コンゴ、キューバ、イラン、カシミール、レバノン、モザンビーク、ウクライナ、ベネズエラをはじめとする数えきれないほどの地域で横行する暴力、占拠、戦争など、さまざまな組織的抑圧、不平等、抹殺の増長に苦しむすべての人々に対し、連帯を表明し、ビエンナーレ事務局長および運営陣に対し、2026年のヴェネツィア・ビエンナーレを、コヨ・クオのキュラトリアル・ステートメントにあるように「すべての生命の尊厳が守られる」場所として、共に実現するよう呼びかけた。
要請文書には、嶋田美子、ブブ・ド・ラ・マドレーヌら73名（匿名を含む）が署名（※最下部に掲載）。ビエンナーレ事務局が第61回展のアルセナーレ会場へのイスラエル館の参加を認めたことをきっかけに、昨年よりアーティストら有志が週に約1度のペースでオンライン会議を開き、これまであまり国際展などで日の目を見ることがなかったグローバルサウス出身のアーティストたちの声を尊重する形で、意見表明の内容が検討された。
アーティストら有志は、ヴェネツィア・ビエンナーレ事務局が表明する「中立性」の立場に対して、戦争犯罪、残虐行為、ジェノサイドを積極的に推し進める政治体制に対して、ビエンナーレへの参加を認めることは中立ではないと反論。イスラエルがパレスチナ・ガザ地区のパレスチナ人に対してジェノサイドを犯したことは、国連独立国際調査委員会をはじめ、国際ジェノサイド研究者協会（IAGS）、ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ、さらにはイスラエルの人権団体べツェレムや人権のための医師団・イスラエルも認める事実であり、国際刑事裁判所（ICC）が、2024年11月21日にネタニヤフ首相に対して戦争犯罪と人道に対する罪を犯した刑事責任を負うとして請求した逮捕状も有効であるなど（影響力のある第三国が長年にわたり国際法違反を容認することで共謀してきた事実も含む）、こうした犯罪が継続する中で、ビエンナーレがイスラエル館を受け入れるべきではないと主張した。
また、ヴェネツィア・ビエンナーレが、これまでにも軍事侵略やアパルトヘイト体制を理由に、南アフリカ共和国（1968–1993）、チリ（1974）、ロシア（2022–2024）といったナショナル・パビリオンの参加を拒否してきた歴史についても言及。ロシアがウクライナへの侵攻を続ける2022年には、「ヴェネツィア・ビエンナーレには、ロシアの現政権に反対する人々のための場所が常に存在します。（中略）この状況が続く限り、ビエンナーレは、このような極悪な侵略行為を実行、支援する人々との一切の協力を拒否し、ロシア政府と何らかの関係を持つ公式代表団、機関、個人のいかなる企画への参加を認めません」との公式見解を発表した先例を示し、この原則は、今日のイスラエル、ロシア、アメリカ合衆国にも適用されるべきであり、これら3カ国を含む戦争犯罪を犯している政権からのいかなる公式代表団も拒否すべきだと主張。また、パレスチナのパビリオンが存在していない事実も、イスラエルのパビリオンを設置することに内在する不平等をさらに悪化していると指摘した（2025年9月時点で国連加盟国193カ国中157カ国がパレスチナを国家として承認。一方、2026年2月時点で国連加盟国192カ国中163カ国がイスラエルを国家として承認している）。
以下、原文を掲載。
An urgent call from artists and curators of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2026
In refusing the spectacle of horror, the time has come to listen to the minor keys, to tune in sotto voce to the whispers, to the lower frequencies; to find the oases, the islands, where the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded.
In Minor Keys, Curatorial Statement by Koyo Kouoh, 2025
We are artists and curators invited to the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia by Koyo Kouoh. As cultural workers and human beings raised and based in a multiplicity of localities around the globe, we express our solidarity with all people subject to rising forms of systemic oppression, inequalities and erasure, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, Sudan and Myanmar, as well as rampant violence, occupation and war in Cameroon, Congo, Cuba, Iran, Kashmir, Lebanon, Moçambique, Ukraine, Venezuela and too many other places. This is the world we live in, it is the world we make our work in, and it is the larger context within which the 61st Biennale will be seen and received.
We are committed to an active decolonial practice of anti-racist politics and human rights which is embedded in our work. We speak up in resistance to increased repression, censorship, and policing of cultural and intellectual spaces.
Specifically, we have come together to object to the decision by La Biennale to exceptionally relocate the Israeli pavilion in the Arsenale. To insert the Israeli pavilion into spaces alongside the main exhibition, In Minor Keys, conceived by Koyo Kouoh, intrudes upon and goes directly against Kouoh’s curatorial vision, her curatorial statement, and the principles of Radical Solidarity she articulated so clearly in all her work. This will also introduce conditions of violence and fear through the military and police presence that will accompany the Israeli pavilion. This concerns us directly as artists in the exhibition. On March 13, 2026 we requested that La Biennale revoke this decision.
La Biennale has made a statement of neutrality and we submit in response that allowing governments that are actively committing war crimes, atrocities and genocide to participate is not neutral. A community of nations can only exist if states are sanctioned when they egregiously violate international law and human rights. As the largest and most visible art event in the world, a position taken by La Biennale has enormous impact. While it may be beyond the power of an exhibition to bring justice to all our concerns, there are ethical lines that can be drawn, and actions that cannot be normalized.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry determined that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and this same determination has been made in multiple assessments by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), Human Rights Watch, and leading Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, Israel. The atrocities committed by the Israeli government are well-documented, as is the structural and systemic apartheid regime of brutal attacks, killings and illegal annexations of land. The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 21 November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still in place. While these crimes are ongoing it is unconscionable for La Biennale to accommodate an Israeli pavilion.
The UN also reported on the direct complicity of other nations: [1]
The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel. Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this live-streamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third States’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation.
La Biennale has chosen to exclude national pavilions in the past based on their unilateral military aggression or apartheid regimes. While certain exclusions (of South Africa 1968-1993, Russia 2022-2024) were made on the basis of international sanctions, La Biennale has also taken other positions when circumstances demanded. Notably, in 1974, La Biennale stood in solidarity with the people of Chile; all national pavilions were closed and the 1974 edition renamed itself “Freedom to Chile; for a democratic and anti-fascist culture”.
La Biennale established another compelling precedent with its 2022 statement excluding official Russian participation.[2]
For those who oppose the current regime in Russia there will always be a place in the exhibitions of La Biennale. […] As long as this situation persists, La Biennale rejects any form of collaboration with those who […] have carried out or supported such a grievous act of aggression, and will therefore not accept the presence at any of its events of official delegations, institutions, or persons tied in any capacity to the Russian government.
We believe these principles hold true today, that they apply to Israel, Russia and the United States. There is a threshold beyond which participation in La Biennale should not be normalized. As in 2022, the current conditions demand that La Biennale di Venezia exclude any official delegation from current regimes committing war crimes, including Israel, Russia, and the United States.
The continuing absence of a Palestinian pavilion only heightens the inequality implicit in the accommodation of the Israeli pavilion.[3]
We call on the President and the management of La Biennale to join us in making Biennale Arte 2026 a place where, as Koyo Kouoh wrote, “the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded.”
*1 https://www.un.org/unispal/document/special-rapporteur-report-gaza-genocide-a-collective-crime-20oct25/
*2 https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/la-biennale-di-venezia-ukrainian-pavilion-biennale-arte?
*3 Palestine has been recognized as a sovereign state by 157 of 192 UN member nations, Israel by 163.
Signatories
1. Alice Maher
2. Carolina Caycedo
3. Vera Tamari
4. Hagar Ophir
5. Avital Barak
6. Sohrab Hura
7. Yoshiko Shimada
8. Rachel Fallon
9. Florence Lazar
10. Carrie Schneider
11. Nolan Oswald Dennis
12. Alan Phelan
13. Mohammed Joha
14. Uriel Orlow
15. Natalia Lassalle-Morillo
16. Hala Schoukair
17. Gala Porras-Kim
18. Alfredo Jaar
19. Thania Petersen
20. Sofía Gallisá Muriente
21. rana elnemr
22. Himali Singh Soin and
23. David Soin Tappeser
24. Pio Abad
25. Anonymous artist
26. Yo-E Ryou
27. Anonymous artist
28. BuBu de la Madeleine
29. Tabita Rezaire
30. Cauleen Smith
31. Fabrice Aragno
32. Rasha Salti
33. Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo
34. Joana Hadjithomas and
35. Khalil Joreige
36. Mohammed Z. Rahman
37. Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka
38. Guadalupe Rosales
39. Nina Katchadourian
40. Kemang Wa Lehulere
41. Sabian Baumann
42. Anonymous artist
43. Walid Raad
44. Marigold Santos
45. Rajni Perera
46. Bonnie Devine
47. Annalee Davis
48. Éric Baudelaire
49. Buhlebezwe Siwani
50. Guadalupe Maravilla
51. IONE for Pauline Oliveros
52. Raed Yassin
53. Anonymous artist
54. Anonymous artist
55. lugar a dudas
56. Amina Saoudi
57. Anonymous artist
58. Johannes Phokela
59. Rory Tsapayi
60. Anonymous artist
61. Carrie Yamaoka
62. Joy Episalla
63. Zoe Leonard
64. fierce pussy
65. Anonymous artist
66. Ayrson Heráclito
67. Berni Searle
68. Anonymous artist
69. Theo Eshetu
70. Anonymous artist
71. Nancy Brooks Brody Estate
72. Edouard Duval-Carrié
73. Denniston Hill