Artist Gabrielle Goliath said she and curator Ingrid Masondo are submitting an application for a court case against South African culture minister Gayton McKenzie after he canceled their planned pavilion for the Venice Biennale.
Goliath was set to show a performance from her “Elegy” series, part of which would address Israel’s war in Gaza. McKenzie claimed in communications to Goliath that this element made the work “polarizing” and proceeded to cancel it, a move that she later called censorship.
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McKenzie went on to attribute his decision not to the political content of Goliath’s work but to the alleged interference of an unnamed foreign nation in the pavilion’s organization. While the Israeli publication Ynetnews reported that the foreign nation was Qatar, the South African outlet Daily Maverick cast doubt on McKenzie’s claims, saying that it was the Qatar Museums that sought to acquire Goliath’s art after it was to be exhibited. The museum network appears to have decided not to ultimately strike an agreement to purchase the work.
On Wednesday, the Art Newspaper reported that Goliath and Masondo were set to file an application with the South African high court in Pretoria on Tuesday that would label McKenzie’s actions unconstitutional. If they are successful, Goliath’s pavilion could ultimately go on as planned.
Whether a South African Pavilion will happen at all at this biennale remains an open question. But according to the Art Newspaper, there may be signs that the process to organize it is starting back up again. The publication said it had spoken with a 30-artist collective called Beyond the Frames that stated it had “been in talks” with the South African culture ministry regarding a potential Biennale contribution, though the group did not provide specifics.