After canceling a planned pavilion by Gabrielle Goliath that would have featured references to Israel’s war in Gaza, South Africa will not take part at all in this year’s Venice Biennale, opening in May.
It is the latest turn in a controversy that began in January, when Goliath revealed that South African culture minister Gayton McKenzie had pulled the plug on her pavilion. McKenzie claimed that a foreign country had interfered with the pavilion while it was being conceived.
Goliath said the true reason for the cancelation was her work’s references to Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. In messages to Goliath, McKenzie had seemed to denounce the performance Goliath had conceived as well, claiming that it contained “highly divisive” content.
She went on to allege censorship and even took the case to court in South Africa, saying that McKenzie had infringed upon her and curator Ingrid Masondo’s rights to freedom of expression. This week, her case was tossed out. The judge presiding over the decision did not provide a reasoning.
“We believe this ruling sets a dangerous precedent, jeopardising the rights of artists, curators and creatives in South Africa to freedom of expression—freedom to dissent,” Goliath and Masondo said in a statement. “It goes without saying that we will be contesting this ruling through an appeal.”
According to the Art Newspaper, which first reported confirmation of South Africa’s plans not to participate, the country’s space in the Arsenale, one of the Biennale’s main venues, will be empty altogether.
