Israel’s participation in the 2026 Venice Biennale is in jeopardy, according to a Haaretz report that said the country’s government is struggling renovate its pavilion in a timely fashion.
The Israeli Pavilion was memorably shuttered on opening day in 2024 by artist Ruth Patir, who said, along with her curators, that she would only reopen her show upon a hostage deal with Hamas and a ceasefire in Gaza, neither of which occurred during the exhibition’s run. Israel is not participating in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens next month.
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And now, it seems that Israel may not participate in the 2026 Biennale, either. Haaretz’s Naama Riba reported that the Israeli culture ministry and foreign ministry, which co-run the pavilion, are seeking to do upkeep on the pavilion. But the project to do so has inched along so slowly that it could now prevent the country from doing the 2026 pavilion altogether.
Per the Haaretz report, the Israeli foreign ministry said there were budgetary issues with the plan to renovate the pavilion. And though the budget has now been set, the culture ministry reportedly claims it is still awaiting a schedule to renovate the pavilion, something the foreign ministry said was approved right before Passover earlier this month.
Although Biennale pavilions tend to be controversial for a variety of reasons, Israel’s was among the most widely protested last year in advance of Patir’s decision to temporarily close it. Thousands of artists, including some participants in the Biennale’s main exhibition, signed a letter in which they labeled the pavilion “genocidal.”
The Venice Biennale has not yet publicly released a deadline for national pavilions, and the exhibition itself does not open until May 9, 2026. Still, around a dozen countries have already begun announcing their 2026 Biennale plans. Among the highest-profile pavilions to be detailed are the ones for the UK and France, which will be done by Lubaina Himid and Yto Barrada, respectively.
Biennale pavilions are frequently impacted by geopolitical developments. Russia, for example, hasn’t shown at the Venice Biennale since the onset of its war in Ukraine.