More than 100 artists participating in the Venice Biennale have accused organisers of ignoring repeated requests to remove them from visitor-voted awards and have threatened legal action over the dispute.<\/p>\n
In a statement posted on e-flux<\/a> on 3 June, artists from the Biennale’s In Minor Keys exhibition and various national pavilions said they were disappointed that the Biennale had failed to act on their requests to withdraw them from the Visitors’ Lions awards. Signatories include Walid Raad, Laurie Anderson and Pio Abad, among many other artists.<\/p>\n \u201cWe view this lack of responsiveness as not only highly disrespectful of the undersigned participants in the Biennale, but also of the audience,\u201d the group wrote, adding that it was \u201cunfair\u201d to ask the public to participate in a process that \u201chas lacked transparency and accountability\u201d and \u201ca waste of their time to ask them to cast votes that cannot be counted\u201d.<\/p>\n The signatories said they would \u201cbegin next steps towards legal action\u201d, without elaborating.<\/p>\n The statement reproduces a 20 May letter sent by the group to the Biennale, in which the artists expressed their \u201cshock\u201d at finding their names still listed despite earlier requests to be withdrawn. The letter demanded that their names be removed from \u201cany and all contexts involving the Visitors’ Lions awards\u201d and that any votes cast for them be disqualified.<\/p>\n \u201dWe request confirmation in writing, as you have done in previous communications, that you have received this letter and that you will immediately accommodate this change to your website,\u201d the artists wrote.<\/p>\n In a statement to The Art Newspaper, the Biennale said it had replied to the artists on 28 May. The response, which the Biennale provided in full, stated that the artists would remain listed in the awards process in order to \u201cguarantee all visitors their freedom of expression\u201d, but that votes cast for signatories requesting withdrawal would not be counted.<\/p>\n “No response to this letter was received so far,” the Biennale’s statement added.<\/p>\n