How a Pink Balaclava Transforms the Art World Into a Rock Club

The pink smoke hit Venice on a Wednesday in May, and for a few minutes the most important art at the 61st Biennale wasn't hanging on a wall. It was running.The Associated Press reported women in pink balaclavas swarmed the Russian pavilion in the Giardini, popped flares of pink, blue, and yellow smoke, and started yelling "Russia's art is blood" and "Disobey." Photographs from The Guardian show the haze of it, balaclavas blurred against the trees. ABC News reported Italian police blocked the entrance and the protest blockaded Russia's return for about 30 minutes; ARTnews and Artnet clocked it closer to 20. Split the difference if you want, or don't. Either way it ran long enough to turn a national pavilion into a stage, and long enough to drag every well-fed collector and curator out of their champagne reverie.This is the kind of thing that used to happen in basements on Cass Avenue. Somebody plugs in a guitar barely in tune, somebody else screams something true, and the whole room…