[thingist] NO GENOCIDE PAVILION AT THE VENICE BIENNALE.

[Keith Sanborn]

Thanks. 

> On Mar 1, 2024, at 10:23 AM, w <w at thing.net> wrote:
> 
> 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/
> 
> 
> 
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