{"id":260280,"date":"2025-10-30T06:51:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T06:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/260280\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T06:51:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T06:51:04","slug":"artists-withdraw-from-maxxi-show-over-links-to-genocide-in-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/260280\/","title":{"rendered":"Artists Withdraw from MAXXI Show Over \u2018Links to Genocide in Palestine\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA group of artists have withdrawn their work from an exhibition at one of Italy\u2019s top contemporary art museums, citing the institution\u2019s alleged \u201clinks to genocide in Palestine,\u201d ahead of the show\u2019s opening this week.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe seven artists\u2014Tania Bruguera<\/a>, Dora Garcia<\/a>, Phil Collins and Sini\u0161a Mitrovi\u0107, Alessandra Saviotti, and Gemma Medina\u2014were to be featured in the highly anticipated exhibition \u201c1+1: The Relational Years,\u201d which is set to open at MAXXI<\/a> in Rome today. The show, which also features the work of Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Pierre Huyghe, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, is set to survey relational aesthetics, which was first theorized as a movement in 1998 by Nicolas Bourriaud, who serves as the exhibition\u2019s curator.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an open letter<\/a> published on the website of Nero Editions, a publishing house focused on artist\u2019s books and museum catalogs, the artists write, \u201cwe have become aware of MAXXI\u2019s stance on the ongoing genocide in Gaza and on the brutal occupation of Palestine, evidenced through its acceptance of funding from and recent collaborations with Eni, Leonardo s.p.a. and other entities directly complicit in these atrocities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth Leonardo and Eni are Italian companies that have ties to Israel. Leonardo is the largest arms manufacture in the European Union and one of the largest in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Eni is an energy tech company that was one of six companies to receive a license for natural gas exploration in the Mediterranean Sea by Israel\u2019s Energy Ministry in October 2023, according to a report<\/a> by Reuters.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe open letter further explains that MAXXI \u201chas a history of partnerships with companies directly involved in the genocide of the Palestinian people,\u201d including Leonardo and Eni. This fall Eni supported<\/a> a commission produced by MAXXI for Italian artist Maurizio Nannucci at the Gazometro G3 at the Eni Complex in Rome. Additionally, the letter\u2019s footnotes cite four Israel-related programs organized by MAXXI in the past few years as further proof of the institution\u2019s support of Israel, such as the 2018 exhibition \u201cTel Aviv, The White City\u201d and an event in February 2024 titled \u201c7 October 2023: Israel burns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe artists\u2019 statement continues, \u201cFar from isolated cases, such deeply troubling practices are part of a broader and persistent pattern of institutional choices which reveal the museum\u2019s role in legitimizing zionist propaganda and narratives that enable the systematic erasure of Palestinian culture, history and life. We find this an unacceptable context in which to present our work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to the artists\u2019 withdrawal statement, five anti-Zionist activist groups\u2014Galassia Antisionista, Vogliamo Tutt\u2019Altro, BDS Roma, Il Campo Innocente, ANGA\u2014have added their own statement. They note that Italy is the third largest supplier of arms, after the United States and Germany, to Israel, according to a 2024 study<\/a> by SIPRI.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe will not allow our work to serve institutions supporting and whitewashing the destruction of communities, the desertification of ecosystems, and the denial of Palestinian rights,\u201d the activist groups\u2019 portion of the letter reads. \u201cArt is not neutral. Artists should not collaborate with MAXXI as long as the museum does not take a clear and public position against the genocide and cut partnerships with entities profiting from the zionist colonization of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThese groups launched a boycott of several Italian cultural institutions this past April, including MAXXI, as well as the art fair Miart and the Rome museum Palazzo delle Esposizioni.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is unclear if the artists\u2019 work will actually be removed from the exhibition. ARTnews\u2019s multiple requests for confirmation of their withdrawal and for comment to MAXXI went unanswered.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their statement, the artists called for others to join the boycott of MAXXI until it \u201cunequivocally denounces Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza and the colonization of Palestine, and commits to severing all ties with companies complicit in crimes against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir statement adds, \u201cIn light of MAXXI\u2019s position and affiliations, we cannot in good conscience collaborate with such an institution and have therefore collectively withdrawn from the exhibition. This decision underscores our conviction that, as artists, we must take responsibility for the injustices our work might otherwise be used to justify, legitimize and art-wash. The struggle for Palestinian liberation does not end with the so-called current \u2018peace plan,\u2019 used as a thinly veiled pretext for continued oppression and colonial expansion. We must act accordingly to keep raising our voices\u2014and make explicit where we stand, and what we oppose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of artists have withdrawn their work from an exhibition at one of Italy\u2019s top contemporary art…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,140604,88,140605,140606],"class_list":{"0":"post-260280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-dora-garcia","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-maxxi","15":"tag-tania-bruguera"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}