Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera says guests will not be disinvited from the festival because of their political views, as the topic of the ongoing war in Gaza takes hold on the festival’s first day.

“The position of the Biennale is at one hand we are an Italian cultural institution, a place of openness and debate that does not censor anybody,” said Barbera at the press conference for the heads of the official competition juries. “We’ve been asked to turn down invitations to artists – we will not do that, if they want to be here they will be here.”

Activist collective Venice4Palestine had called for the festival to disinvite In The Hand Of Dante stars Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler for what the collective perceives as the actors’ support for the Israel government which is conducti

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