metropolis m

Een groep kunstenaars heeft hun werk teruggetrokken uit een tentoonstelling in een van de belangrijkste musea voor hedendaagse kunst in Italië. Zij verwijzen naar de vermeende “banden van de instelling met genocide in Palestina” kort voor de opening van de tentoonstelling deze week. De actie sluit uit op een bredere kritische beweging die afstand neemt van de mate waarin de Italiaanse regering Israël steunt bij het uitvoeren van de genocide in Gaza.

De zeven kunstenaars die zich nu terugtrekken — Tania Bruguera, Dora Garcia, Phil Collins en Siniša Mitrović, Alessandra Saviotti en Gemma Medina — zouden te zien zijn in de langverwachte tentoonstelling 1+1: The Relational Years, die afgelopen week opende in MAXXI in Rome. De tentoonstelling, waarin ook werk te zien is van Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Pierre Huyghe en Rirkrit Tiravanija, onderzoekt relationeel aesthetics, een term die in 1998 is bedacht door Nicolas Bourriaud, die tevens curator van de tentoonstelling in Rome is.

In een open brief, gepubliceerd op de website van de Italiaanse Nero Editions schrijven de kunstenaars: ‘Wij zijn ons bewust geworden van de houding van MAXXI ten aanzien van de voortdurende genocide in Gaza en de brute bezetting van Palestina, wat blijkt uit het accepteren van financiering van en recente samenwerkingen met Eni, Leonardo S.p.A. en andere entiteiten die direct medeplichtig zijn aan deze gruweldaden.’

Lees hier de open brief:

ARTISTS’ STATEMENT

As artists and cultural producers invited to participate in the exhibition 1+1: The Relational Years, we have become aware of MAXXI’s stance on the ongoing genocide in Gaza and on the brutal occupation of Palestine, evidenced through its acceptance of funding from and recent collaborations with Eni, Leonardo s.p.a. and other entities directly complicit in these atrocities. Far from isolated cases, such deeply troubling practices are part of a broader and persistent pattern of institutional choices which reveal the museum’s role in legitimizing zionist propaganda and narratives that enable the systematic erasure of Palestinian culture, history and life. We find this an unacceptable context in which to present our work.

We believe institutions must embody, in practice, the values they claim to uphold. By disregarding the alarm raised by a wide coalition of cultural workers in Italy, as well as by large sections of Italian society, MAXXI abdicates its public responsibility and deepens the harm inflicted on the very communities it purports to represent.

The refusal to sever ties with funding sources embedded in networks of destruction, suffering and death, and to clearly condemn the apartheid system and genocidal policies of the State of Israel, constitutes a political and moral failure that cannot be defended. At this historical juncture, neutrality is complicity. Taking a clear, unequivocal position is not optional; it is an ethical imperative.

We join fellow artists, cultural workers, colleagues, and comrades in Italy and beyond who refuse their labor to sustain a system built on the lie that we are divided and powerless. There are strength and joy in exercising noncompliance, in the collective power of resistance, and in insisting that change is not only possible but inevitable. Dignity and freedom lose all meaning when they are afforded to the few and denied to others. As history has shown, time and again, organized pushback and principled withdrawal can demand accountability and ignite real, lasting transformation.

In light of MAXXI’s position and affiliations, we cannot in good conscience collaborate with such an institution and have therefore collectively withdrawn from the exhibition. This decision underscores our conviction that, as artists, we must take responsibility for the injustices our work might otherwise be used to justify, legitimize and art-wash. The struggle for Palestinian liberation does not end with the so-called current “peace plan,” used as a thinly veiled pretext for continued oppression and colonial expansion. We must act accordingly to keep raising our voices—and make explicit where we stand, and what we oppose.

We call on art and cultural workers to join the boycott until the museum unequivocally denounces Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the colonization of Palestine, and commits to severing all ties with companies complicit in crimes against humanity.

In solidarity,

Phil Collins and Siniša Mitrović
Tania Bruguera
Alessandra Saviotti
Gemma Medina
Dora Garcia