Another Four Artists Withdraw from
Biennale Sydney on Ethical Grounds
Today a further four artists
have announced their 'boycott' of the Sydney Biennale by withdrawing their art from
exhibition in the 19th Biennale of Sydney, due to the funding of
Transfield the multinational sponsor which is running Australia’s detention
camps condemned for human rights abuses by the UN.
The latest four artists who
have withdrawn their works in protest are: Agnieszka Polska, Sara van der
Heide, Nicoline van Harskamp and Nathan Gray.
This artist boycott follows the
boycott of the first five artists announced last week (letter on this blog) in
an open letter to the Biennale, stating that they would not allow their works
to be used to endorse the profits of detention camps and to art-wash the image
of an unethical corporate sponsor, Transfield. They have since made further
statements and three of the boycotting artists spoke at a public lecture in
Sydney last night, which I attended, and spoke with the boycotting artists afterwards
(which I will write up and post here soon).
Some artists are using the term
‘withdrawal’ rather than boycott— but it is the same thing, Olafur Ólafsson, ex-Biennale artist from Iceland, said
to me last night when I spoke with him after a public lecture in Sydney.
I will write more about that
conversation soon.
Reproduced in full for the
record, below, is the Open Letter by the four artists announcing their boycott,
today and first published today on the Biennale Artists Working Group website.
March 5th 2014
After much consideration we:
Agnieszka Polska, Sara van der Heide, Nicoline van Harskamp and Nathan Gray,
have decided to withdraw our works from the 19th Biennale of Sydney, because of
its relation to Transfield, a company involved in the Australian government
policy of mandatory detention.
Our motivations reflect those
outlined in the statement issued by artists Ögüt,
Castro, Ólafsson, Sofo and de Vietri on February 26th, added as a reference with this letter. They close their statement
by expressing their hope that others will join them in “solidarity with all
those who are working towards a better future for asylum seekers.” Our
withdrawal is such an act of solidarity.
We have requested the Biennale
that our withdrawal be registered on their website and signposted at the
physical site of exhibition, so that this action will not be unnoticed.
With Regards,
Agnieszka Polska, Sara van der
Heide, Nicoline van Harskamp and Nathan Gray
Contact: 2014workinggroup@gmail.com
The first open letter from 46 Sydney Biennale artists in
protest at the detention camps funding:
Open Letter to the Board of the Sydney
Biennale From Participating Artists
19 February 2014
To the Board of Directors of the Biennale
of Sydney,
We are a group of artists - Gabrielle de Vietri,
Bianca Hester, Charlie Sofo, Nathan Gray, Deborah Kelly, Matt Hinkley, Benjamin
Armstrong, Libia Castro, Ólafur Ólafsson, Sasha Huber, Sonia Leber, David
Chesworth, Daniel McKewen, Angelica Mesiti, Ahmet Öğüt, Meriç Algün Ringborg,
Joseph Griffiths, Sol Archer, Tamas Kaszas, Krisztina Erdei, Nathan Coley,
Corin Sworn, Ross Manning, Martin Boyce, Callum Morton, Emily Roysdon, Søren
Thilo Funder, Mikhail Karikis, Mikala Dwyer, Rosa
Barba, Sara van der Heide, Henna-Riikka Halonen, Shannon Te Ao, Hadley+Maxwell, Ane Hjort Guttu, Yael Bartana, Emily Wardill, Agnieszka Polska, Bodil
Furu, Eglė Budvytytė, Eva
Rothschild, Annette Stav Johanssen, Synnøve G.
Wetten, Tori Wrånes, Siri Hermansen, James Angus
- all participants in the 19th Biennale of Sydney.
- all participants in the 19th Biennale of Sydney.
We are writing to you about our concerns with
the Biennale’s sponsorship arrangement with Transfield.1
We would like to begin with an affirmation and
recognition of the Biennale staff, other sponsors and donors, and our fellow
artists. We maintain the utmost respect for Juliana Engberg’s artistic vision
and acknowledge the support and energy that the Biennale staff have put into
the creation of our projects and this exhibition. We acknowledge that this
issue places the Biennale team in a difficult situation.
However, we want to emphasise that this issue
has presented us with an opportunity to become aware of, and to acknowledge,
responsibility for our own participation in a chain of connections that links
to human suffering; in this case, that is caused by Australia’s policy of
mandatory detention.
We trust that you understand the implications of
Transfield’s recent move to secure new contracts to take over garrison and
welfare services in Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres on Manus
Island and in Nauru. We have attached for your
information, a document that outlines our understanding of the links between
the Biennale, Transfield and Australia’s asylum seeker policy.
We appeal to you to work alongside us to send a
message to Transfield, and in turn the Australian Government and the public:
that we will not accept the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, because it
is ethically indefensible and in breach of human rights; and that, as a network
of artists, arts workers and a leading cultural organisation, we do not want to
be associated with these practices.
Our current circumstances are complex: public
institutions are increasingly reliant on private finance, and less on public
funding, and this can create ongoing difficulties. We are aware of these
complexities and do not believe that there is one easy answer to the larger
situation.
However, in this particular case, we regard our
role in the Biennale, under the current sponsorship arrangements, as adding
value to the Transfield brand. Participation is an active endorsement,
providing cultural capital for Transfield.
In light of all this, we ask the Board: what
will you do? We urge you to act in the interests of asylum seekers. As part of
this we request the Biennale withdraw from the current sponsorship arrangements
with Transfield and seek to develop new ones. This will set an important
precedent for Australian and international arts institutions, compelling them
to exercise a greater degree of ethical awareness and transparency regarding
their funding sources. We are asking you, respectfully, to respond with
urgency.
Our interests as artists don’t merely concern
our individual moral positions. We are concerned too with the ways cultural
institutions deal with urgent social responsibilities. We expect the Biennale
to acknowledge the voice of its audience and the artist community that is
calling on the institution to act powerfully and immediately for justice by
cutting its ties with Transfield.
We believe that artists and art-workers can—and
should—create an environment that empowers individuals and groups to act on
conscience, opening up other pathways to develop more sustainable, and in turn
sustaining, forms of cultural production.
We want to extend this discussion to a range of
people and organisations, in order to bring to light the various forces shaping
our current situation, and to work towards imagining other possibilities into
being. In our current political circumstances we believe this to be one of the
most crucial challenges that we are compelled to engage with, and we invite you
into this process of engagement.
We look forward to hearing your response and
given the urgency of this issue, hope that we can receive it by the end of this
week.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Gabrielle de Vietri, Bianca Hester, Charlie
Sofo, Nathan Gray, Deborah Kelly, Matt Hinkley, Benjamin Armstrong, Libia
Castro, Ólafur Ólafsson, Sasha Huber, Sonia Leber, David Chesworth, Daniel
McKewen, Angelica Mesiti, Ahmet Öğüt, Meriç Algün Ringborg, Joseph Griffiths,
Sol Archer, Tamas Kaszas, Krisztina Erdei, Nathan Coley, Corin Sworn, Ross
Manning, Martin Boyce, Callum Morton, Emily Roysdon, Søren Thilo Funder,
Mikhail Karikis, Mikala Dwyer, Rosa Barba, Sara
van der Heide, Henna-Riikka Halonen, Ane Hjort Guttu, Hadley+Maxwell, Shannon Te Ao, Yael Bartana, Emily Wardill, Agnieszka Polska, Bodil
Furu, Eglė Budvytytė, Eva
Rothschild, Annette Stav Johanssen, Synnøve G.
Wetten, Tori Wrånes, Siri Hermansen, James Angus
NOTES
1. Please note that in this document we use the
name Transfield to refer to three branches of the Transfield brand: Transfield
Holdings, Services and Foundation. Please refer to our information sheet for
our understanding of how these are linked.
Ruth Skilbeck 5.3.2014
Four More Artists Open Letter of 5 March announcing withdrawal, posted for the first time on Biennale Artists Working Group blog.
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