And suddenly they're outraged?
On the 'Australian' art industry and the Venice Biennale
The Australian art industry — its artists, administrators, gallerists, institutions, media and promotional ecosystem — has for 16 months maintained a near-universal silence on Palestine. Silent cowardice, silent careerism, silent capitulation, performed ‘neutrality’.
And now, within the space of a few days, this industry has proven that it is, in fact, capable of mobilising en masse in the face of injustice; rallying around a cause, releasing immediate statements, writing urgent open letters, posting in solidarity, demanding answers, demanding accountability, demanding change, naming names, expressing outrage.
Genocide has proven unworthy of outrage. The shredded flesh of thousands of children has proven unworthy of outrage. Incinerated refugee tents and hospitals have proven unworthy of outrage. Babies forced to perish and rot alone in their NICU incubators have proven unworthy of outrage. Daily massacres have proven unworthy of outrage. The annihilation of entire Palestinian family lines has proven unworthy of outrage.
But an artist being prevented from attending the Venice Biennale? Suddenly everyone has found their voice.
Having nurtured and coddled Zionism within their industry for decades, artists and arts organisations are now rushing to condemn one of its lesser symptoms — and giving each other mutual standing ovations for their efforts.
Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a successful Australian artist. You’ve been watching on in self-preserving silence as a world-historic moral imperative erupts before your eyes. You’re probably feeling a bit left out, right?
But your gallerist has explicitly told you not to mention Palestine, and what are you gonna do? It’s a very cool and fancy gallery! Furthermore, the institutions that promote and platform you are packed with influential Zionists. It simply wouldn’t be a sensible career choice for you to acknowledge a genocide.
Nevertheless, you’re feeling a vague but growing awareness of an uncomfortable inevitability: your own cultural irrelevance. This feeling is particularly acute for you, as you’ve built your entire career on the slick, marketable aesthetics and vibes of decolonialism.
Then along comes the Khaled Sabsabi crisis. A much-needed pressure release! An opportunity for you to shout and rage with a cosy sense of collective moral certainty. An issue upon which your industry is in such furious agreement that taking a stance carries no personal risk. Perhaps most importantly, you finally have the opportunity to play at ‘activism’ — without ever having to say the word Palestine. Not even once.
‘Oh, let people come to the issue slowly’, an observer might say. ‘Maybe this is just the gentle entry point they need. At least they’re finally…’
No, stop. Finally what?? They’re not saying it. Not with their open letters, not with their statements, not with their outraged posts. They’re not saying the word:
PALESTINE.
Khaled Sabsabi was dropped from the Venice Biennale because of PALESTINE.
In fact, the Australian art industry is twisting itself into knots to say absolutely anything BUT Palestine: that this is a violation of due process, an affront to our proud democracy, a betrayal of our successful nation, incompatible with the intrinsic morality of our industry, a disgrace to the lofty values of Creative Australia, an issue of managerial overreach, an issue of diversity and inclusion.
These do not signal even the slightest nudge towards liberation. Rather, they are perpetuating and normalising the myth of Australian colonial exceptionalism, while further entrenching and codifying the erasure of Palestine.
The continued erasure of Palestine from this discourse is, in itself, an act of capitulation and censorship — the very things that the Australian arts industry is suddenly purporting to oppose.
‘Oh, but the censorship of Artistic Expression™ is an element of fascism!’, you might say. ‘Surely that, in itself, is worth opposing?’
Well, yes, I might even agree with you. But the Venice Biennale is an inextricably imperialist and elitist European art event. An event that has been in bed with the illegitimate Zionist entity since the fifties. An event that still proudly maintains an Israeli pavilion, even throughout this most current and brutal iteration of genocidal colonialism across Palestine, Lebanon and neighbouring homelands. Australia itself has been a consistently violent colony since 1788. For 100 years, Australia has also participated militarily, diplomatically and ideologically in the colonisation of Palestine.
Sabsabi is an excellent and principled artist — his piece You (2007) is a particularly powerful work. His success is also a perceived threat to Zionism. For that, I support him.
But in a truly antifascist world, nobody would ever be compelled to ‘represent’ Australia — and we’d be so thoroughly repulsed by the Venice Biennale that we’d all have abandoned it anyway.
Fascism will be defeated by its alternatives, not its participants.
My partner Tess recently wrote:
When a publisher makes a statement supporting the owners of the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem but has been silent throughout 16 months of genocide, their red line is not genocide, but the arts.
When a gallery or artist makes a statement about Khaled Sabsabi's exclusion from the Venice Biennale but has been silent throughout 16 months of genocide, their red line is not genocide, but the arts.
They draw their line at the point where a public statement will benefit their brand or ostensibly safeguard their career.
Maybe this frenzy of collective outrage will succeed and Khaled Sabsabi will get to go to Venice. Maybe he won’t.
Either way, Zionists will remain committed to the daily slaughter and dispossession of Palestinians. And all these freshly outraged Australian artists and arts workers will go back to their Zionist or Zionist-adjacent gallerists, institutions, patrons and donors, who will pat them on the head:
‘Very good darling, you made a lot of noise this week and you didn’t say the P word once, I’m so proud of you, here’s another treat’.
Australian artists are so hungry for these fancy little Zionism-laced treats that they willingly exchange liberation for representation — and ultimately remain beholden to imperialism.
Great article ,Thank you for your work! Journalism and truth telling does exist just not with MSM