IT WAS SUPPOSED to be a party. The trappings(排场，装饰) were all there: an open bar, resplendent(华丽的，辉煌的) pink flowers, a musician, scheduled DJ sets. And yet something was amiss(不对劲的，有毛病的)—in fact, lots of somethings. In the Russian pavilion at the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale, irony was everywhere yet acknowledged nowhere(讽刺无处不在，却无人承认。).
这本该是一场派对。所有的排场都齐全：敞开的酒吧、华丽的粉色花朵、一位音乐家、排定的DJ表演。然而有些东西不对劲——事实上，很多事情都不对劲。在第61届威尼斯双年展的俄罗斯展馆里，讽刺无处不在，却无人承认。
“Why do flowers no longer smell?”, a seven-paragraph, mind-wilting(令人费解的，令人昏昏欲睡的) description, accompanied a floral sculpture—which did, in fact, smell. A bin filled with a jumble(杂乱的一堆) of clothing and a sign declaring “tutto a 0€” was not intended to evoke refugees displaced by Russia’s war in Ukraine, but who could think of anything else? And then there was the spokesman wearing a black-and-white striped mask and Cheshire-cat smile(① 文化背景：出自刘易斯·卡罗尔的《爱丽...), as visitors milled around uneasily. “It’s a festival,” he insisted. “It’s like Coachella, but in Venice!”
“为什么鲜花不再有香味？”一篇篇幅长达七段、令人费解的说明文字，配上了一件确实有香味的鲜花雕塑。一个装满乱糟糟衣服的垃圾桶，上面标着“tutto a 0€”（全部免费），本意并非让人联想到因俄罗斯在乌克兰的战争而流离失所的难民，但谁又能想到别的呢？还有那位戴着黑白条纹面具、露着柴郡猫般笑容的发言人，参观者们不安地徘徊着。“这是一个节日，”他坚持说。“就像科切拉音乐节，只是在威尼斯！”
The official theme of this year’s Biennale, which opened to the public on May 9th and runs until November 22nd, is “In Minor Keys”. But the art world’s oldest and largest global gathering has opened to a loud soundtrack of discord(不和谐的配乐). The festival’s decision to allow Russia to host an exhibition—after being absent from the past two instalment(（系列活动的）一届)s—set off a furore(轰动，公愤), resulting in the European Commission pulling €2m ($2.3m) of funding and several leaders boycotting the Biennale’s opening.
今年双年展的官方主题是“小调”，展览于5月9日向公众开放，持续至11月22日。但这一艺术界历史最悠久、规模最大的全球盛会却在一片不和谐声中开幕。主办方允许俄罗斯在缺席前两届后举办展览的决定引发了轩然大波，导致欧盟委员会撤回了200万欧元（230万美元）的资助，并有多位领导人抵制双年展开幕式。
