(C) Global Voices
This story was originally published by Global Voices and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Creative Australia restores representatives for the 2026 Venice Biennale in a win for freedom of expression [1]
['Kevin Rennie']
Date: 2025-07-23
An about-face by Creative Australia, the government’s principal arts investment and advisory body, has been welcomed as a win for freedom of expression. The controversy started when Creative Australia removed artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s nominees for the 2026 Venice Biennale, a prestigious international art exhibit held in Venice biannually.
On July 2, 2025, the Guardian reported the latest development in the controversy:
Creative Australia has reinstated the artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s artistic team for the 2026 Venice Biennale after an independent external review of the decision. The pair had been dumped from the prestigious art exhibition earlier this year after Creative Australia’s board took the unprecedented decision to revoke their appointment.
The cancellation took place only days after they were first selected in February 2025. Khaled Sabsabi is a Lebanese Australian artist. This news came just a couple of weeks after an Australian court decided that Lebanese Australian journalist Antoinette Lattouf was unfairly removed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in December 2023. This came after she reposted a Human Rights Watch Instagram video about the use of starvation as warfare in Gaza.
Joshua Byrd shared his relief on Mastodon:
Post by @
[email protected] View on Mastodon
The revoking of their appointment as Australia’s representatives centred on two of Sabsabi’s much earlier artworks. YOU (2007) contained footage of then-Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Thank You Very Much (2006) featured a video of the 9/11 attacks and President George W. Bush.
The latest board decision followed a Senate committee hearing and an independent review by consultancy firm Blackhall & Pearl.
The review found that “a series of missteps, assumptions and missed opportunities” had taken place in the Creative Australia Board's original processes.
Support Global Voices as we publish more articles like this one
For more information about this campaign please go here.
In June, only weeks before the change of heart, Alison Croggon canvassed aspects of the controversy in the Meanjin Quarterly:
When Creative Australia tore up its contract with Sabsabi and Dagostino, it was widely seen as a betrayal of its fundamental purpose. … This seems an outrageous stance for the nation’s supposed chief advocate for the arts, and dangerously close to the informal blacklists and ‘loyalty reviews’ of the anti-communist McCarthy era of 1950s America, which destroyed the careers of many left-wing artists and activists.
There was considerable criticism of the Creative Australia board following the February cancellation. Artist Lindy Lee quit as a Creative Australia board member, and staff members also resigned in protest.
Federal Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, was accused of influencing the February board decision but denied trying to exert political influence. He gave this answer at a press conference in February:
In June, the board chair, Robert Morgan, retired more than a year before his term was to finish. The Chief Executive Officer, Adrian Collette, has remained in place despite ongoing criticism. However, the calls for his resignation have continued after the backdown:
Samuel Cairnduff, Lecturer in Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne, sees challenging times for the arts:
Sabsabi and Dagostino’s reinstatement is not just a symbolic correction. It is a test. Can Creative Australia rebuild trust with a community that saw it falter? Will future risk processes be used to support bold programming or suppress it? And will this moment mark the beginning of a stronger, more principled approach to cultural leadership, or a drift into safer, smaller territory?
With hindsight, Creative Australia’s reasoning in February that “a prolonged and divisive debate about the 2026 selection outcome poses an unacceptable risk to public support for Australia’s artistic community and could undermine our goal of bringing Australians together through art and creativity”, was self-fulfilling.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://globalvoices.org/2025/07/23/creative-australia-restores-representatives-for-the-2026-venice-biennale-in-a-win-for-freedom-of-expression/
Published and (C) by Global Voices
Content appears here under this condition or license:
https://globalvoices.org/about/global-voices-attribution-policy/.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/globalvoices/
