The Venice Biennale previewed its 61st and most chaotic edition ever on Tuesday, just days after the unprecedented resignation of its jury over the participation of Israel and Russia undermined the very structure of the world’s oldest contemporary art exhibition.

Tensions were evident as a group of Palestinians marched through the Giardini wearing the names of artists who have been killed in Gaza. More protests were expected as the preview week continued.

At the same time, Ukrainian artists stood by a truck that had brought a statue of an origami deer from the war-ravaged eastern front to the Biennale’s storied Giardini. Just meters away, a handful of participants in the Russian Pavilion danced to house music played by an Argentine DJ.

Few inside the Biennale were surprised that global politics were spilling over into the international art exhibition, putting new pressure on its structure of national pavilions alongside a curated exhibition and raising old questions: Is the representation of nations outmoded in a globalized system where artists often operate internationally, and does it give states an undue platform for propaganda?

“I think what has been contested very much is the existence of the nation state within the space of the exhibition,” said Marie Helene Pereira, one of the five curators of the main exhibition “In Minor Keys,” who have taken up the mantle of the late curator Koyo Kouoh.

“We can see how much that can bring tension, especially in the midst of the political chaos (in which) we find ourselves,” Pereira said. “It’s important to be able to rethink structure, rethink institutions, in a way that allows for them to cater more to artists and artmaking,” though that didn’t mean that art should be devoid of politics.

Ahead of its resignation, the jury had said it would not award prizes to countries whose leaders were under investigation by the International Court of Justice. The move isolated Israel and Russia, whose leaders Prime Minister Benjamin........

© The Times of Israel