Benjamin Brown, CNN
Tue, April 16, 2024
Israel’s representative at Venice’s Biennale exhibition has said she won’t unveil the country’s pavilion until a hostage and ceasefire deal has been reached in Gaza.
Artist Ruth Patir said the exhibit in the Italian city “will only open when the release of hostages and ceasefire agreement happens” in a statement shared on Instagram Tuesday.
Patir said she would raise her voice “with those I stand with in their scream, ceasefire now, bring the people back from captivity. We can’t take it anymore.”
The Venice Biennale, an eight-month-long international festival of art and culture, is staged every other year, showcasing some of the world’s most prominent creatives in one place.
Each year, an artistic director is appointed to curate the central exhibit which in many ways sets the tone for the whole festival.
A petition signed by more than 23,000 people had recently called for Israel to be excluded from the international cultural exhibition, as calls for truce and an independently Palestinian state have grown.
Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza on October 7 after the militant group Hamas, which governs the strip, killed at least 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 others.
Israeli attacks in Gaza have since killed at least 33,797 Palestinians and injured another 76,465 people, according to the Ministry of Health there. Human Rights Watch and Oxfam have accused Israel of carrying out “indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in violation of international law” and imposing collective punishments on the civilian population.
Patir on Tuesday said that she and commissioners Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit had become the news in recent weeks rather than the art and the exhibition entitled, “(M)otherland.” “If I am given such a remarkable stage, I want to make it count,” Patir said, adding that she “firmly objected” to cultural boycott but chose to take action as she felt there was “no right answer.”
Italian soldiers patrol the Israeli national pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art fair in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. - Colleen Barry/AP
Israel artist shuts Biennale show until ceasefire, hostages freed
AFP
Tue, April 16, 2024
Ruth Patir's video installation "(M)otherland" had been due to open at Israel's national pavilion at the international art show. (GABRIEL BOUYS)
The artist representing Israel at the Venice Biennale called Tuesday for a ceasefire in the war with Hamas and said her exhibit would remain closed until the hostages were released.
Ruth Patir's video installation "(M)otherland" was due to open on Saturday at Israel's national pavilion at the international art show, but the day before a media preview, she said it would remain closed for now.
"I feel that the time for art is lost and I need to believe it will return," she wrote in a post on Instagram.
She said she and curators Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit "have become the news, not the art".
"And so if I am given such a remarkable stage, I want to make it count," she wrote.
"I have therefore decided that the pavilion will only open when the release of hostages and ceasefire agreement happens."
Thousands of artists, architects and curators signed a petition earlier this year urging the Biennale organisers to ban Israel over its actions in Gaza -- a call condemned by Italy's culture minister as "shameful".
"I am an artist and educator, I firmly object to cultural boycott," Patir continued.
"But since I feel there are no right answer(s), and I can only do what I can with the space I have, I prefer to raise my voice with those I stand with in their scream, ceasefire now, bring the people back from captivity.
"We can't take it anymore."
The Biennale's curator Adriano Pedrosa told AFP he thought Patir's decision was "very courageous".
"I respect and appreciate that decision. I think it's also very wise," he said.
Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 33,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The militants also took about 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.
The Biennale Arte 2024, one of the world's leading international art exhibitions, runs from April 20 to November 24.
Israeli artist, curators refuse to open exhibit until cease-fire, hostage deal is reached
Bradford Betz
Tue, April 16, 2024
The artist representing Israel at this year's Venice Biennale in Italy, along with its curators, said Tuesday they will not open the Israeli pavilion until a cease-fire and hostage deal are reached in Israel’s months-long war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A sign on the window of the Israeli pavilion posted Tuesday and written in English reads: "The artist and curators of the Israeli pavilion will open the exhibition when a cease-fire and hostage release agreement is reached."
In a statement, artist Ruth Patir, said she and the curators wanted to show solidarity with the families of the hostages "and the large community in Israel who is calling for change."
"As an artist and educator, I firmly object to cultural boycott, but I have a significant difficulty in presenting a project that speaks about the vulnerability of life in a time of unfathomed disregard for it," Patir said in the statement.
Israel is among 88 national participants in the 60th Venice Biennale, which runs from April 20-Nov. 24. The Israeli pavilion was built in 1952 as a permanent representation of Israel inside the Giardini, the original venue of the world's oldest contemporary art show and the site of 29 national pavilions. Other nations show in the nearby Arsenale or at venues throughout the city.
But even before the statement, curators and critics had signed an open letter calling on the Biennale to exclude the Israeli national pavilion from this year's show to protest Israel's war in Gaza. Those opposed to Israel's presence had also vowed to protest on-site.
Italy's culture minister had firmly backed Israel's participation, and the fair was opening amid unusually heightened security.
The national pavilions at Venice are independent of the main show, and each nation decides its own show, which may or may not play into the curator's vision. Patir’s Israeli exhibit was titled "(M)otherland."
The curators of the Israeli pavilion, Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit, said they were delaying the opening of the exhibit because of the "horrific war that is raging in Gaza," but that they hoped the conditions would change, so the exhibit could open for public view.
"There is no end in sight, only the promise of more pain, loss, and devastation. The exhibition is up and the pavilion is waiting to be opened," they said. For now, a video work made by Patir can be seen through the pavilion window.
The (M)otherland exhibit was set to run from Saturday, April 20, through Sunday, November 24.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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