South African artist Gabrielle Goliath is suing arts minister Gayton McKenzie after he blocked her from representing the country at the Venice Biennale, citing her work addressing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “highly divisive”. The lawsuit, filed last week, also includes curator Ingrid Masondo and studio manager James Macdonald.
The legal action demands the high court reinstate Goliath’s participation by 18 February, the deadline for confirming installations with Biennale organisers. It accuses McKenzie of acting unlawfully and violating the right to freedom of expression. Goliath’s video work, Elegy, pays tribute to Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, killed alongside her son by an Israeli airstrike in October 2023.
McKenzie responded in a statement earlier this month, suggesting a “foreign country” had offered to fund South Africa’s exhibition and alleging the country’s platform was being “used as a proxy by a foreign power to endorse a geopolitical message”. The statement appeared to refer to an inquiry from Qatar Museums, which did not proceed. Goliath rejected the accusation as a “damaging conspiracy theory”.
In letters included in the court filing, McKenzie wrote that the subject matter was “related to an ongoing international conflict that is widely polarising” and would not be “wise or defensible” for South Africa to support an installation against a country accused of genocide while South Africa itself faced “unjustified accusations of genocide”. South Africa launched a genocide case against Israel in 2023.
Goliath’s exhibition was to feature three videos from Elegy, each honouring a female victim: Abu Nada; Ipeleng Christine Moholane, a 19-year-old murdered in South Africa in 2015; and two female victims of the German genocide in Namibia. The minister’s decision has sparked outrage among South African artists, with open letters condemning the removal. The Democratic Alliance reported McKenzie to the public watchdog. No replacement has been announced.
