Israel artist refuses to open Israel pavilion at Venice Biennale

VENICE, Italy (AP) — The artist and curators representing Israel at this year’s Venice Biennale announced Tuesday that they would not open the exhibition in the Israeli pavilion until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and an agreement to liberate hostages.

“Art can wait, but women, children and people living in hell cannot,” the curators said in a statement along with the artist who expressed horror at both the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the relatives of the hostages taken from Israel.

Their decision, praised as brave by the festival’s chief curator, was posted on a poster in the window of the Israeli national pavilion on the first day of media previews, just days before the Biennial The contemporary art fair opens on Saturday.

Israel is among 88 national participants in the 60th Venice Biennale, which will be held from April 20 to November 20. 24. The exhibition in the Israeli national pavilion was titled “(M)otherland” by artist Ruth Patir.

Even before the preview, thousands of artists, curators and critics had signed an open letter calling on the Biennale to exclude the Israeli national pavilion from this year’s exhibition to protest Israel’s war in Gaza. Those opposed to Israel’s presence had also promised to protest at the site.

Italy’s Culture Minister had strongly backed Israel’s participation and the fair opened amid unusually high security.

Written in English, Tuesday’s announcement about Israel’s delayed opening said: “The artist and curators of the Israeli pavilion will open the exhibition when a ceasefire and hostage release agreement is reached.” Two Italian soldiers stood guard nearby.

In a statement, Patir said she and the curators wanted to show solidarity with the hostages’ families “and the large community in Israel that is calling for change.”

“As an artist and educator, I strongly oppose the cultural boycott, but I have significant difficulties presenting a project that speaks to the vulnerability of life in a time of unfathomable contempt for it,” Patir said in the statement.

Patir, who remained in Venice on Tuesday, declined to comment further, as did the Biennale organizers.

Adriano Pedrosa, Brazilian curator of the Biennale’s main exhibition, praised the gesture.

“It’s a very brave decision,” Pedrosa told The Associated Press. “I think it is also a very wise decision” because it is “very difficult to present a work in this particular context.”

Venice’s national pavilions are independent of the main exhibition, with each nation deciding its own exhibition, which may or may not match the curator’s vision.

palestinian artists are participating in collateral events in Venice and works by three Palestinian artists will appear in Pedrosa’s main exhibition, titled “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere,” which has a preponderance of artists from the global south.

Pedrosa, artistic director of Brazil’s Sao Paulo Museum of Art, said one of the Palestinian artists, New York-based Khaled Jarrar, was not physically in Venice because he could not obtain a visa.

The curators of the Israeli pavilion, Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit, said they were delaying the opening of the exhibition due to the “horrible war ravaging Gaza,” but that they hoped conditions would change so the exhibition could open to the public. view.

“There is no end in sight, only the promise of more pain, loss and devastation. The exhibition is already finished and the pavilion is waiting to be inaugurated,” they said. At the moment, through the window of the pavilion you can see a video work made by Patir.

Geopolitics is not foreign to the Biennial. The Italian festival discouraged and then banned South African participation during apartheid. Russian artists withdrew their participation in 2022 to protest the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Biennale said Russia did not apply to participate in this year’s edition.

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas and Islamic Jihad carried out a cross-border attack on October 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped another 250.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has So far they have killed more than 33,700 Palestinians., according to local health officials, causing widespread devastation. The United Nations has warned imminent famine in northern Gaza.

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Nicole Winfield contributed from Rome.