[thingist] NO GENOCIDE PAVILION AT THE VENICE BIENNALE.

[w]

https://anga.live/

We, the undersigned, call for the exclusion of Israel from the Venice
Biennale. As the art world readies itself to visit the Giardini’s
nation-state diorama, we say platforming art representing a state
engaged in ongoing atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza is
unacceptable. No Genocide Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

The world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, has
affirmed that Israel is plausibly committing genocide against
Palestinians in Gaza. The ICJ has issued interim measures warning
Israel to cease any acts of genocide in Gaza. Israel’s months- and in
fact many-decades-long assault on Gaza continues regardless, while its
leaders proclaim they are above International Law and boldly advertise
their genocidal intent. 

The Biennale was modelled on the Eurocentric world fair and retains
these geopolitical biases. Demands for it to acknowledge atrocities
committed by its participants are not, however, without precedent. From
1950-1968, due to widespread global condemnation and calls for boycott,
apartheid South Africa was discouraged from exhibiting and sidelined
when the Biennale allocated spaces. An official ban was put in place in
1968 based on the UN resolution 2396 to suspend “exchanges with the
racist regime.” South Africa was not readmitted until its apartheid
rule was abolished in 1993. 

Leading international, Palestinian, and Israeli human rights
organisations have long argued that Israel’s occupation of Palestine,
of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip — deemed illegal
by the UN Resolution 242 of November 1967 — constitutes, together with
its treatment of Palestinians inside 1948 borders, a cruel system of
apartheid and a crime against humanity.

In 2022, with Russia’s war on Ukraine freshly underway, the Biennale
and its curator issued numerous public statements in support of the
Ukrainian people’s right to self-determination, freedom, and humanity.
The Biennale’s public condemnation of “the unacceptable military
aggression by Russia” included an avowal to reject “any form of
collaboration with those who have carried out or supported such a
grievous act of aggression” and a refusal to “accept the presence at
any of its events of official delegations, institutions or persons tied
in any capacity to the Russian government.” 

The Biennale has been silent about Israel’s atrocities against
Palestinians. We are appalled by this double standard. Israel’s assault
on Gaza constitutes one of the most intense bombardments in history. By
the end of October 2023 Israel had already fired tonnes of explosives
on Gaza equal in force to the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan
in 1945. In January 2024 it was reported that the daily death rate in
Gaza exceeds that of any other major conflict in the 21st century.  

The Israeli pavilion curators and artist have issued a simplistic
statement about the necessity of art in dark times, insisting on a
“pocket for free expression and creation amidst everything that’s
happening.”  Another double standard. 

Art does not happen in a vacuum (let alone a “pocket”), and cannot
transcend reality. Euphemisms cannot erase violent truths. Any work
that officially represents the state of Israel is an endorsement of its
genocidal policies. There is no free expression for the Palestinian
poets, artists, and writers murdered, silenced, imprisoned, tortured,
and prevented from travelling abroad or internally by Israel. There is
no free expression in the Palestinian theatres and literary festivals
shut down by Israel. There is no free expression in the museums,
archives, publications, libraries, universities, schools, and homes of
Gaza bombed to rubble by Israel. There is no free expression in the war
crime of cultural genocide. 

While the Israeli pavilion presses ahead, the genocidal death toll in
Gaza and the West Bank increases daily. While Israel’s curatorial team
plans their “Fertility Pavilion” reflecting on contemporary motherhood,
Israel has murdered more than 12,000 children and destroyed access to
reproductive care and medical facilities. As a result, Palestinian
women have C-sections without anaesthetic and give birth in the street.

Any official representation of Israel on the international cultural
stage is an endorsement of its policies and of the genocide in Gaza. 

The Biennale is platforming a genocidal apartheid state. 

No death in Venice. 

No business as usual. 

NO GENOCIDE PAVILION AT THE VENICE BIENNALE.

Signed,

ANGA - Art Not Genocide Alliance

SIGN HERE:  https://anga.live/