The Tamesis
Artist Gabrielle Goliath says she and curator Ingrid Masondo are filing a court case after South Africa’s Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie canceled a planned pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Goliath will perform performances from her “Elegy” series, part of which will address Israel’s war in Gaza. In her correspondence with Goliath, McKenzie claimed that this element made the work “polarizing” and began to cancel it, a move she later called censorship.
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McKenzie went on to say that his decision was not due to the political content of Goliath’s work, but rather due to alleged interference by an unknown foreign country in the organization of the pavilion. Although Israeli publications network news According to reports, the foreign country is Qatar and South Africa exports Everyday maverick It cast doubt on McKenzie’s claims, saying it was the Qatar Museums that was trying to acquire Goliath’s artwork after it was about to go on display. The museum network appears to have decided not to finalize a deal to purchase the work.
Wednesday, The Art Newspaper Goliath and Masando will reportedly apply to South Africa’s High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday to label McKenzie’s actions unconstitutional. If they succeed, Goliath’s pavilion can finally go ahead as planned.
Whether there will be a South African pavilion at the Biennale remains an open question. But according to The Art Newspaperthere may be signs that the process of organizing it is starting anew. The publication said it had spoken to a 30-artist group called Beyond the Frames, which said it was in “negotiations” with South Africa’s Department of Culture about a potential contribution to the biennale, but the group did not provide specific details.
