Venice in Turmoil, Museums on the Brink

After more than sixteen years in development, Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Image and Sound—MIS-RJ—opens to the public tomorrow, May 8, on the city’s waterfront, according to The Art Newspaper. The new ten thousand-square-metre building has eight floors, including a rooftop and two basement levels, and a façade of interlocking aluminium and glass panels that frames panoramic views toward Copacabana Beach. The Rio de Janeiro state government first announced plans in 2009 and contracted Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with a design that nods to Roberto Burle Marx’s sinuous black-and-white Copacabana sidewalk from the 1970s. After multiple stalls, work resumed in 2021, backed by public and private funding including Itaú, Vale, and Rede Globo.

Staying in the United States, The Art Newspaper flags a sobering statistic: around 85% of US museums report a backlog of building maintenance or repairs, and about 77% have at least one structural issue that puts collections at risk. The data comes from a US Government Accountability Office survey of around 300 museums, plus 17 site visits, conducted as part of the federal appropriations process. GAO’s David Marroni notes how many of the nation’s sixteen thousand seven hundred museums are small operations where a roof or HVAC replacement can swallow a third of the budget. Accessibility is another challenge, especially in older sites built before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Many institutions rely on private fundraising because grants for structural work are scarce, and deferred costs can become so severe that rebuilding may be cheaper.

Also in New York, The Art Newspaper spotlights Cooper Jacoby as a standout at the Whitney Biennial, with sculptures that probe how corporations—including AI giants—turn personal data into financial assets. Jacoby stages five works in a green-carpeted environment he likens to a “rat trap,” pulling visitors in with sound. His 2026 work Estate (July 10, 2022) features a folding screen and an intercom that speaks using AI models trained on years of social media posts by an anonymous creative who died on the date in the title. The intercom’s camera scans the room for people and objects, then cues related text, while a counter tracks time since death. Nearby, Mutual Life sculptures turn “biological age” into unsettling, time-keeping objects—an idea Jacoby links to insurers refining costs through more data.

Across town in Brooklyn, ARTnews reports that Radiohead is presenting Motion Picture House KID A MNESIA at the Brooklyn Navy Yard through June 28. For multiple timed showings per day through May 31, with tickets priced at seventy two dollars visitors begin by roaming a dark exhibition of art tied to Kid A and Amnesiac, the albums from 2000 and 2001. The space has no labels or wall text, leaving people to navigate works that include large wall pieces, arrays of old TVs and VCRs flickering familiar imagery, and sculptures—like a 25-foot “Stickman.” At the center is a screening room anchored by a film/video work, with on-screen prompts like “slow down” and “sit, lean or lay anywhere.” The film moves through drawn woods and abstract realms, soundtracked entirely by the music.

Now to Venice, where Artnet News reports an unprecedented 24-hour strike set for Friday, May 8, during the Venice Biennale’s opening week, in protest of Israel’s participation. Nika Grabar of the Nonument Group, representing Slovenia in the Arsenale, calls it a sign of a “deep structural crisis” and says the goal is not to demolish the Biennale but “to save it.” The strike escalates a campaign by the Art Not Genocide Alliance, which delivered a March letter demanding Israel be excluded and says it has been signed by over 230 Biennale participants. Some teams are weighing solidarity against the visibility the Biennale offers; Anna Shvets, general producer for Ecuador’s Tawna Collective pavilion, said they were still deciding. A demonstration is planned for 4:30 p.m. on Via Garibaldi, and Slovenia’s pavilion plans to dim lights and replace sound with a Radio Alhara livestream.

The Art Newspaper adds another layer, reporting on Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco’s defence of the event amid Russia and Israel controversy. Speaking at Teatro Piccolo dell’ Arsenale on Wednesday, May 6, he quoted Italian president Sergio Mattarella and argued that if the Biennale selected works based on passports, it would stop being “the place where the world comes together.” He also said “Ukraine and Russia are represented at the Biennale Gardens today.” Russia’s return for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted Italy’s culture minister Alessandro Giuli to send inspectors, with a report submitted to prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s office and published by media. The Art Newspaper also notes planned strike action for May 8, and that the Russia pavilion is open during the press preview but will close for the six-month show due to EU sanctions, with videos projected on its exterior wall.

ARTnews, meanwhile, reports that Israel’s representative, Belu-Simion Fainaru, reportedly pressured the Venice Biennale’s organizers before the jury abruptly resigned. The five-person jury had previously said it would not consider for Golden Lion awards any artists representing nations charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court—a stance that would have applied to Israel and Russia. According to the Italian news agency Adnkronos, Fainaru allegedly raised claims of “racial discrimination” and “antisemitism,” and reportedly threatened to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. Adnkronos also reported that the Biennale told the jury its members could “be held personally liable for damages in the event of a dispute.” Hyperallergic said it confirmed Fainaru made threats of legal action, and a Biennale spokesperson told Hyperallergic the reports were true while declining further comment.

Another Venice development comes from ARTnews: the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian pavilions staged a pro-Ukraine procession on May 6, one of the 2026 Biennale’s preview days. A statement from the Lithuanian Pavilion said the walk was dedicated to Ukrainian cultural workers “who continue to create and represent their country in conditions of war,” and to those who have been killed amid ongoing violence. The procession began at the Lithuanian Pavilion in the Fucina del Futuro, moved to the Latvian Pavilion in the Arsenale, and ended at the Estonian pavilion at Patronato Salesiano Leone XIII, described as a church–turned–community center—about a mile and a half in total. Ukraine has its own pavilion, and this year’s show, “Security Guarantees,” features work by Zhanna Kadyrova. Latvian commissioner Solvita Krese said Russia’s participation raises urgent questions about cultural institutions’ responsibility.

Taiwan has announced its Venice Biennale collateral event with Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan, presented by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. The exhibition runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at the Palazzo delle Prigioni, with a new work by Taiwanese artist Li Yi-Fan curated by Raphael Fonseca of Culturgest in Lisbon and Porto. The project is conceived as an installation integrating video and mixed media across the entire space, and the museum says it’s the first time it has undertaken an all-encompassing installation there since it began exhibiting at the venue in 1995. Large-scale customized sculptures of fragmented limbs will be arranged throughout, resonating with characters emerging from the video to create a push-and-pull between fictional imagery and physical sensation. The title—originally Melancolia de tela—shifts across languages as it reflects on how screens mediate daily life.

Finally, still in Venice, The Art Newspaper reports that Shirin Neshat returns with Do U Dare!, a film trilogy presented at the 16th-century Palazzo Marin from May 8 to September 6. The work follows a female protagonist across three New York social landscapes, filmed in black-and-white until she transitions into interior space and the world turns to colour, shifting from isolation to a “superpowered” ability to resist or move people to tears. Neshat says her work is about paradox and “magic realism,” and the trilogy is directly inspired by Nasim Aghdam—the 38-year-old Iranian American known as the “YouTube Shooter.” Aghdam accused YouTube of censorship and depriving her of income, and on April 3, 2018, she entered YouTube’s headquarters near San Francisco, wounded three people, then killed herself with a Smith & Wesson.

That’s today’s download—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for more art-world headlines and hard conversations; until then, Chinga la migra.

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