Sydney Biennale Board Severs Ties with Controversial Sponsorship

Today the Biennale of Sydney Board announced that is has severed the ties with immigration detention camp funding, which were highly controversial and contested as illegal, for breach of international law. 

This is the outcome of a concerted campaign by the prominent international Biennale artists themselves, ten of whom withdrew their work from the Biennale (see Boycott the 19th Sydney Biennale )in protest.

When international governments questioned the links, (as reported in the Guardian today) the Biennale (see Biennale of Sydney) announced the resignation of chairman and major sponsor director.

You can read about the campaign by artists in their open letters on the Daily Fugue site,  with commentary from an art critic and artist who supported Biennale artists who withdrew, through this difficult and challenging campaign, and wrote about it on this blog.

"I will be continuing to write about the Biennale, and the new developments in the context of the changing art world. I will be interviewing artists at the Biennale, about their ideas and works, and the changing art world in the contexts which are emerging." 

Ruth Skilbeck 7.3.14