Visitors to this year’s Venice Biennale are being urged to vote for their favorite artists—whether those artists like it or not. More than 100 participants in the art expedition say they’ll pursue legal action if organizers don’t take their names off a new public ballot for “Visitors’ Lions” awards, given to the best overall participant and best national pavilion. The voted-on awards were created after the official jury abruptly quit in April, refusing to honor artists representing countries whose leaders are under investigation by the International Criminal Court, per the New York Times. The artists say they asked twice to be excluded from the vote, never mentioned in their contracts, citing support for the resigned jury.
Biennale officials argue they are preserving “freedom of expression” by keeping all names on the ballot, but say any votes for artists who opted out won’t actually count. Critics call that misleading for visitors, who assume all listed artists are eligible. Artists now threatening legal action hail from countries including Austria, Britain, France, Italy, Ukraine, Iceland, Norway, and Denmark, per the Times and Washington Post. “We have not signed up to this,” Swiss artist Uriel Orlow tells the Times, calling the public vote “wasted” if it includes unwilling contenders. The dispute caps weeks of turmoil triggered when the original jury effectively sidelined artists from Israel and Russia. Protests against Russia’s inclusion followed.
