Australia has left his plans for his selected 61st Venice Biennale representation after the abrupt dropping of Lebanese artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino about a week thereafter appointment The couple. Creative Australia, the federal body in charge of organizing the country’s pavilion, today announced the unanimous decision, February 13.
“The board believes that a long -term and divided debate on the outcome of the selection 2026 is an unacceptable risk for public support for the artistic community of Australia and our goal could undermine Australians through art and creativity,” Creative Australia said in one rackAdding that it looks at the selection process.
Sabsabi, whose Lebanon family fled in 1978 after the outbreak of the civil war, often uses video installations and other compelling media to tackle themes related to human collectivity, cultural identity and political ideology. His work is informed by his lived experience of migrating Tripoli to Sydney and often struggles with Western views on Arabic identity.
However, part of his work was examined in a report from The AustralianFollowed by a discussion in parliament earlier this week. Critics were mainly focused on works such as the 2007 installation YouThose images manipulates from the recently murdered Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the work of 2006 “thank you very much”, those images of the attacks of 9/11 and a press conference with then President George W. Bush recovers.
“We are extremely injured and disappointed in the decision of Creative Australia Board to withdraw our appointment to represent Australia on the Biennale of Venice,” said Sabsabi and Dagostino Hyperallergic In a statement. “We were planning to present a transformational work in Venice, an experience that would unite all target groups in an open and safe shared space. This reflects and builds on the work that we have done for decades and will do it for much more. Art should not be censored if artists reflect the times in which they live. “
According to the GuardianAsked the Liberal Senator Claire Chandler during the parliamentary meeting: “With such a horrible anti -Semitism in our country, why is the Albanian government highlighting the person who highlights a terrorist leader in his artwork to represent Australia on the international stage?”
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Australia, which owns the video work, explains on her website That Sabsabi’s use of the image of Nasrallah is ‘deliberately ambiguous’.
“It plays on Western fears for cultural difference […] And suggests the comprehensive continuous news media, and its ability to debit or tackle the intensive repetition of images on our television screens, ”read the text of the museum.
“We believe in the vision of artists for an inclusive future that can bring us to communicate and continue our shared humanity,” said Sabsabi and Dagostino Hyperallergic. “We also believe that, despite this decision, the Australian art world will not dim and or silence.” The duo said that they are still dedicated to presenting their work on a global platform and will “look for community support to make this possible.”
