‘I have not walked this path alone’: South African artist Gabrielle Goliath on showing her cancelled Venice Biennale project outside the main event

South African artist Gabrielle Goliath will present her Venice Biennale project Elegy independently in Venice after South Africa’s sports, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie cancelled the official pavilion presentation in January 2026, leaving the national pavilion empty for the 61st Venice Biennale. Goliath’s new iteration of Elegy addresses the Ovaherero and Nama genocide in early-20th-century Namibia and the death of Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023; McKenzie called the Abu Nada-related suite “highly divisive” and withdrew support after Goliath refused to alter it. The independent exhibition will run from 5 May to 31 July at Chiesa di Sant’Antonin in Castello, near the South African pavilion. Goliath and curator Ingrid Masondo filed an urgent High Court application in Pretoria to overturn the cancellation, which was dismissed, and they have appealed while awaiting a hearing date from Judge Mamoloko Kubushi.

Read the full article at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events