The presence of an official Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, curated by an individual whose father is an executive at Russia’s largest defense contractor, underscores how cultural institutions legitimize state power and capital accumulation, even as Belarusian artists expose the human cost of state terror.
Belarus Free Theatre is presenting Official. Unofficial. Belarus. at the Venice Biennale, an installation designed to capture “totalitarian terror” and the fear of surveillance and intimidation under the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.
Lukashenko, a Putin ally, has controlled Belarus for 32 years, having stolen the last two elections and imprisoned thousands of opponents.
Natalia Kaliada, co-founder of Belarus Free Theatre, stated that Russia's official pavilion represents a “failure of international law and institutions” and is “inseparable from the world failure on Ukraine.”
Kaliada added that when the state declares, “‘The pavilion is coming’, it means the machinery is coming, the money is coming,” directly linking cultural presence to the projection of state power and capital.
The State's Cultural Arm
Russia’s pavilion is curated by Anastasia Karneeva, who operates an art consultancy alongside the daughter of foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
Karneeva’s father holds an executive position at Rostec, Russia’s biggest defence contractor, illustrating the deep integration of state, military, and economic interests.
Daniella Kaliada, mastermind of the Belarusian project, noted that the Russian pavilion is “state-connected at the highest levels,” revealing the structural ties between state power and cultural representation.
This year marks the first time Russia has an official pavilion since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Pussy Riot has promised a takeover of the Russian pavilion, aiming to prompt a review of the biennale’s constitution.
Daniella Kaliada criticized the biennale’s policy, stating that to allow any country to participate “regardless of politics, is outdated.”
Repression's Human Toll
The Belarusian installation was created in a west Warsaw studio by former political prisoners, who are cutting golden wheat stems for the display.
Natalia Kaliada and her husband Nicolai Khalezin have been based in London for 15 years, after fleeing the Lukashenko regime.
Daniella Kaliada was first interrogated by the Belarusian KGB when she was eight years old.
She remembers her mother's arrest at a protest 16 years ago, in 2010, and the subsequent 20-hour detention during which Natalia Kaliada was threatened with rape.
Friends of the family were jailed for months and years, and the husband of Daniella’s godmother was kidnapped and killed.
Composer Olga Podgaiskaya reported that her husband was kidnapped on a visit to Belarus last November, detained for 15 days, and tortured.
Natalia Kaliada’s apartment in Belarus was seized after she and her family left the country.
Books banned in Belarus, including works by Nobel prize winner Svetlana Alexievich and Harry Potter, are shredded and buried, forming a giant ball in the installation.
Painter Sergey Grinevich, who left Belarus to participate in the project, stated he stands “to lose a lot,” including his workshop, 500 artworks, and his house.
Grinevich, who previously painted Soviet propaganda, described today’s state art as “over-sexualised and amateurish,” marked by “devotion to power rather than skill.”
Resistance in Exile
The installation includes surveillance cameras attached to a towering iron crucifix, symbolizing the pervasive state control.
Daniella Kaliada noted that while Belarus presents a “unique authoritarian combination,” the idea of surveillance is universally relatable.
Natalia Kaliada observed that even in the woods, drones now ensure “there is no place for a human to be safe” from state monitoring.
Nicolai Khalezin hosts a YouTube cookery show, urging Belarusian viewers to use VPNs to watch, then delete and unsubscribe, as a form of digital resistance.
More than half of the Belarus Free Theatre project has been funded anonymously by Belarusian businesses in exile, demonstrating a collective effort to support resistance against the regime.
Daniella Kaliada emphasized the necessity for younger generations to “stand up” against such systems, asserting that “it’s about what we do now in order to have a future.”