The Gaza Biennale was both a celebration and a protest

This week, Palestinian art was projected onto the exterior walls of London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, which has been criticised by activists for its funding. THE FACE headed down to find out what’s going on.

Free, free! Palestine!”. On 14th January, around 24 hours before a ceasefire is announced, a small crowd is chanting outside the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Central London. The work of 60 Palestinian artists is then projected onto the legendary institution’s cream-coloured outer walls. The exhibition is part of the Gaza Biennale, a global project bringing together the work of Palestinian artists. It’s also a protest against the ICA’s funding.

The ICA has offered its facilities and shelter when pro-Palestine protests have taken place in Central London and it has recently platformed pro-Palestine voices in the art world. However New Contemporaries – an annual exhibition of the UK’s next generation of talented artists – is sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is complicit in the settlement project in Palestine”, according to Jeannine, an organiser and spokesperson from the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Similarly, filmmakers at the New York Film Festival published an open letter calling on the festival to end its partnership with Bloomberg in 2024, accusing its mayoral training programme, the Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership, of facilitating settlement infrastructure” in the West Bank.

Right next to the crowd gathered for the Gaza Biennale is the queue for the New Contemporaries, where people look a little awkward as they nervously smoke rollies. Many of them have presumably attended just to support friends or catch a glimpse of new works by the 30 artists selected for the exhibition. Perhaps they were unaware of the Gaza Biennale, or Bloomberg Philanthropies’ involvement with New Contemporaries.

Then, at 7pm, 28 of the artists selected for the New Contemporaries exhibition stage a walkout in solidarity with the Biennale, choosing to hand out leaflets outside which give context to the gathering.

The leaflets quote artist and activist Jasleen Kaur’s 2024 Turner Prize acceptance speech: I’ve been wondering why artists are required to dream up liberation in the gallery but when that dream meets life, we are shut down. I want the separation between the expression of politics in the gallery and the practice of politics in life, to disappear.”

Yara, 23, Palestine/London

Why is tonight so important?

It’s really important to continue to plan events and exhibits like this. There’s a lot of people who feel demoralised, and I think the one thing that also keeps people going is uniting. It’s part of our responsibility to be displaying art from Gaza, because it is an act of resistance for them to continue to express themselves in their work.

Mobilisations are really important for bringing people together. What’s required is organisation in something that is a long term struggle. It’s really important because it’s going to take a long time, liberation doesn’t come easy. It’s called struggle for a reason.

Anka, London/Poland

How do you feel about tonight?

I’m an artist and I’ve been supporting New Contemporaries for as long as I’ve been in London. I only found out about the funding a few weeks ago and it’s really complicated for me because I’ve loved the ICA since the 90s. I know they were very pro-Palestine during the early protests. They let us come in for coffee and food for free if we were hungry or cold. We just don’t want any kind of dirty funding to be part of this institution.

Fi, 26, New York

What brings you here tonight?

I’m one of the artists exhibiting at New Contemporaries. When we heard about this protest we all got together pretty immediately. We just wanted to take cues from the folks organising the Biennale and seed as much leverage and space as we could as artists with work in the show. There’s so few opportunities for young, emerging artists to share their work without having to work with organisations complicit in so much violence. Bloomberg pops up in so many of these arts organisations in England and abroad. It just doesn’t even feel right to think twice about making these demands.

Jeanine, 30, London

What’s your role in this event?

I’m from the Britain chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement and we wanted to put on a protest whilst simultaneously showing that in the face of these art institutions, there is a whole world of artistic and cultural production that is refusing to be complicit.

Iman, 22, London

What brings you down here tonight?

I came for the exhibition but now I’m staying for this. I didn’t know they were doing this Gaza protest but I’m really glad they are. I’m in my final year of CSM so it’s definitely inspiring, you can envision what you might be doing post-grad and how your practice might evolve. I wasn’t aware about Bloomberg’s connection so I’m glad that I’ve been made aware.

Tom, 30, London

I think I’ve just been consistently let down by the people who run the art world. Obviously the genocide takes its toll on everyone’s mental health, but I think I find a particular frustration with the complete complicity of the British art world.

Anonymous

Did you come for New Contemporaries or the protest?

A friend’s work is in New Contemporaries right now. So I came to see that, and they mentioned that they were going to do a walkout at 7pm. So I joined that. It’s been some time since I’ve been to a demo for Gaza, and so I thought it was about time I got back out there to do some action and take up some space.

Laisul, 26, London

What brings you down here tonight?

It’s quite difficult. I think ICA as a space has served me in many ways, given that it is open late, it’s not a very commercially led public space but this has also [highlighted to me] that there’s a class divide and everything that we rely on has been spoiled by people that are in power.

Sana, 24, London

What are you looking forward to tonight?

To come and see art from actual Palestinians living in the strip. Everyone there has their own personal stories and in such a dire time, they’re still using whatever power and energy they can muster to show the world their perspective. In a time when art is so exclusive to the upper classes, showing that art is still accessible to everyone, regardless of your background, is such a refreshing thing to see.

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