Elegy by Gabrielle Goliath is installed in the baroque Chiesa di Sant'Antonin in Venice as South Africa’s unofficial pavilion for the 61st Biennale Arte. South Africa’s Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie overrode an independent committee’s selection, claiming the platform would serve as a proxy for a foreign geopolitical message about Israel’s actions in Gaza. Goliath and Ingrid Masondo challenged the decision in court, but the case was dismissed. The installation contains three works from the Elegy series that honor victims of violence. Elegy-Ipeleng Christine Moholane mourns a South African student killed in 2014 amid femicide. Elegy-for two ancestors conjures the memory of two women killed by Germany during the murder of Ovaherero and Nama peoples in Namibia.
"The censorship of Goliath's proposed contribution to the Biennale seems especially perverse when confronted with the actual installation, which is hauntingly beautiful and achingly tender. Three works, all part of her ongoing series Elegy, pay tribute to victims of violence: Elegy-Ipeleng Christine Moholane (2015), mourns a South African student killed in 2014 in the country's ongoing femicide crisis; Elegy-for two ancestors (2024) conjures the memory of two women killed by Germany when they murdered tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama peoples in Namib"
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