"South Africa's cancellation of Elegy threatens to join the ignoble set of actions meant to disappear Gaza and Palestinians from the art world's public sphere. To say that this action is like a tremor from the trauma of the genocide-in-progress is not to overstate the shattering effect of an official acting as a censor on behalf of the same government whose case against Israeli acts of genocide compelled the world to bear witness."
"Sometimes you wake up to news headlines that don't make any sense. Take this one, for example: South Africa Axes Venice Biennale Proposal Centering Gaza Victims. Yes, it is, but it happens to have a right-wing arts and culture minister who found artist Gabrielle Goliath's performance piece "highly divisive in nature." He later came up with the bizarre, unfounded claim that a "foreign power" was involved in the artwork."
South Africa canceled Gabrielle Goliath's performance piece Elegy, proposed for the Venice Biennale, with the arts and culture minister calling it highly divisive and alleging foreign involvement. The cancellation follows South Africa's legal action accusing Israeli acts of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Observers describe the move as risking the disappearance of Gaza and Palestinians from the art world's public sphere and as an instance of official censorship aligned with state positioning. Separately, the White House required the Smithsonian to submit programming details, including wall-label texts, to ensure alignment with the president's worldview, raising concerns about politicized cultural programming.
Read at Hyperallergic
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