South Africa’s arts community has raised serious concerns after Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie withdrew artist Gabrielle Goliath’s acclaimed performance work Elegy from the country’s pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. The work, which confronts gender-based violence and collective mourning and most recently honoured Palestinians in Gaza, had been unanimously selected by an independent curatorial panel. In response to McKenzie’s decision, more than 920 artists and cultural workers signed a statement of solidarity with Goliath, including Mark Gevisser, Pumla Dineo Gqola, Imraan Coovadia, Penny Siopsis, Sue Williamson, Itumeleng Wa Lehulere, Rosie Motene, Athi Patra Ruga, and Andrew Buckland. Signatories accuse the Minister of censorship, undermining constitutional freedoms, and allowing personal political views to interfere in cultural governance. Author C A Davids speaks to Lester Kiewit about why the collective is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene and why recent decisions by the department, including the defunding of the National Arts Festival, signal wider harm to South Africa’s arts ecosystem.

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