The 61st Venice Biennale is in its last weeks and ending on an uncertain note. Last week, La Biennale reminded visitors to vote in the Visitors’ Lions, a one-off award that replaces the usual Golden and Silver Lions. It was a hurried fix. Whether it can carry the same weight is far from clear.
The trouble began before the opening. Protests broke out over the presence of both Russia and Israel. The organisers refused to close either pavilion. They said they reject any form of censorship in culture and art, and they described the Biennale as a place of truce in the name of artistic freedom.
Then the jury walked. On 30 April, days before the opening week, the members appointed by the late Koyo Kouoh resigned together. They had announced that they would not consider any country charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court for the Golden and Silver Lions. That would have ruled out Russia and Israel. The Biennale, citing the resignations and the exceptional geopolitical moment, set up two Visitors’ Lions in their place. One goes to the best participant in Kouoh’s exhibition, In Minor Keys. The other goes to the best national participation.
Voting is limited to ticket holders who have visited both the Giardini and the Arsenale between 9 May and 22 November. The ticketing system tracks this. Each person gets one vote per award, cast in a single session. Collectives count as one participant. Every national participation on the official list can be voted for, which the Biennale says reflects openness, dialogue and equal treatment.
Doubts followed quickly. Some critics worry the ticket tracking could be open to vote rigging or government influence. Others chose to boycott in support of the jury. Nearly 100 participating artists eventually threatened legal action when their wish to stay out of the contest was, in their words, disregarded.
The Biennale has since said it will not count votes for anyone who asked to withdraw. The list is quite long. The main exhibition includes Alfredo Jaar, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Zoe Leonard, Tabita Rezaire, Laurie Anderson and Otobong Nkanga. Artists representing 39 countries are also out, among them France, Austria, the Netherlands, Britain and Ukraine.
This leaves a much smaller field. Plenty of names remain in the running, but a prize that so many have refused will always carry an asterisk. A winner will emerge after 22 November. Whether anyone treats it as a Lion in the old sense is another matter.