Artist Classroom

Was looking through my camera roll and came across an exhibition that Jae and I went to at the Barbican last year. I remember being really surprised to see a couple empty displays throughout the exhibition. We eventually came to realise that several artists and lenders had pulled their works ‘as an act of solidarity with Palestine in response to the Barbican’s decision not to host the London Review of Books (LRB) Winter Lecture Series.’ The institution’s decision to censor Pankaj Mishra’s lecture ‘The Shoah after Gaza’ was completely antithetical to the thesis of their exhibition, titled ‘Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art’.

I wanted to bring this up a year later to spotlight the artists and collectors who decided to speak up against the institution by rescinding their works from the exhibition: Loretta Pettway (collection of Lorenzo Jegarda Leviste and Fahad Mayet), @ytobarrada, @sayawciansayaw, @deedsweaves, Mounira Al Solh, and @pacitaabad. I’ve included two of my personal favourites in this post.

My friend @ziloj has been grappling with the question of whether or not artists can enact change within institutional boundaries / through strategies of infiltration. I found this act of resistance quite impactful (reminded me of the empty spaces in @theacropolismuseum) because it effectively drew visitors’ attention towards the issue while exposing the institution’s performative activism.

This is not the first time that the Barbican has been criticised for discrimination (see @barbicanstories). It is incredibly important, now more than ever, for institutions to be held accountable for sanitisation and for repressing the voices of the people, especially while claiming to champion stories of resilience and resistance.

*Slide 1 image courtesy @censorshipatthebarbican. Text has been added.