The artistic team who were suddenly withdrawn as Australia’s representatives at next year’s Venice Biennale have broken their silence and suggested they will proceed with their exhibition without the Australian government’s endorsement.
Artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino issued a detailed statement on Wednesday evening, saying they remained committed to presenting the work they pitched to Creative Australia last year in Venice, to ensure that the “voices and ideas behind it are not silenced”.
“In the coming weeks, we will share more information on how people can contribute to and participate in this important exhibition,” the statement said.
The pair said the 13 February decision by the Creative Australia board to terminate the Venice Biennale contract had set a dangerous precedent that undermined artistic freedom of expression. The decision was made after questions were raised in parliament about earlier Sabsabi works and the arts minister, Tony Burke, had made a phone call to the agency’s chief executive, Adrian Collette.
(August 2, 2024)
Creative Australia calls for expressions of interest from artists and curators to represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale, four months after the First Nations artist Archie Moore collects the Golden Lion at the 2024 event.
(February 4, 2025)
Creative Australia announces the Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi will represent Australia, with Michael Dagostino, the director of the University of Sydney's Chau Chak Wing Museum, as curator.
(February 11, 2025)
The Australian newspaper's Margin Call column criticises the choice of Sabsabi, mentioning a 2007 work by the artist called You, which depicts images of the former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (killed last September).
(February 13, 2025) Mid-afternoon
The Tasmanian Liberal senator Claire Chandler challenges the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, during question time over Creative Australia's choice of Sabsabi. Wong says she had no prior knowledge of the choice of artist but says "any glorification of the Hezbollah leader Nasrallah is inappropriate".
(February 13, 2025) Early evening
Creative Australia's board, chaired by Robert Morgan, holds an extraordinary meeting. The board votes in favour of withdrawing Sabsabi and Dagostino as Australia's representatives. Creative Australia issues a media release announcing the decision the same evening.
(February 14, 2025)
The investment banker and philanthropist Simon Mordant resigns as a biennale ambassador and withdraws his funding. Creative Australia's head of visual arts, Mikala Tai, and program manager Tahmina Maskinyar both resign in protest.
(February 16, 2025)
The artist Lindy Lee announces her decision to resign from the Creative Australia board on Instagram, saying: “I could not live the level of violation I felt against one of my core values – that the artist’s voice must never be silenced."
At a press conference in Canberra, the arts minister, Tony Burke, denies any political interference allegations.
(February 17, 2025)
Creative Australia announces an independent inquiry into the selection process for the Venice Biennale. The five-member panel which selected Sabsabi releases a joint statement saying it is "deeply concerned" by the decision. Almost 3,000 artists, curators, writers and academics sign a petition calling on Creative Australia to reinstate Sabsabi and Dagostino.
The decision had also undermined “the integrity of Creative Australia’s selection process which is required to be at arm’s length from government”, Sabsabi and Dagostino said.
They called on the government agency to publicly explain how the board came to the conclusion that their presence in Venice in 2026 would be “an unacceptable risk to public support for Australia’s artistic community”. They also called for a public apology to themselves and those who had been directly affected by the decision, as well as the art sector as a whole.
“We are profoundly saddened by Creative Australia’s cancellation of our appointment to represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale. This experience has been personally and professionally distressing, as we were selected through a rigorous process and had already begun meaningful work on this important project.
“We were disheartened to hear that we would cause a ‘prolonged and divisive debate’ and ‘an unacceptable risk to public support for Australia’s artistic community’ and we would like Creative Australia to publicly answer how they came to this conclusion as many experts have come out publicly speaking about the early works as being ‘against ideology’ and ‘ambiguous’.”
At Senate estimates on Tuesday night, Creative Australia’s CEO, Adrian Collette, said a brief informing Burke of the selection of Sabsabi and Dagostino went to his office on 31 January, seven days before the selection was publicly announced.
In between that brief being sent and the public announcement, Collette was alerted by a Creative Australia staffer to the existence of a work created by the artist some 17 years earlier called You. It was a video installation that featured images of Hassan Nasrallah, the former leader of Hezbollah, a group that was only fully proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Australian government some 14 years after the work was created.
The work, You, was not the tipping point however. It was another work, created a year earlier, that sealed the artist’s fate. Collette admitted that neither he or the board were aware of the existence of a work called Thank You Very Much – a montage of the 9/11 attacks with the then US president, George W Bush, speaking the title words in the 2006 video’s conclusion – until Liberal senator Claire Chandler brought up the choice of Sabsabi for the Venice Biennale during question time on 13 February.
By mid-afternoon that day chair of Creative Australia’s board, Robert Morgan, was wrangling his board for an emergency meeting. Collette insists that by the time Burke called him, at about 3.30pm, a six o’clock board meeting had already been slated.
In a statement to the estimates hearing, Burke said that he was shocked to find out about Thank You Very Much but told the board it had his support whatever they decided to do.
Collette said he contacted Sabsabi and Dagostino to inform them of the impending meeting, and again to inform them of the meeting’s outcome an hour and a half later. At no point were the pair given the opportunity to address the board themselves. When Collette tried calling Sabsabi several times later that evening to put the wording of the public statement of his withdrawn commission to him, the artist did not take his calls.
Creative Australia has conceded the Australian Pavilion at next year’s Venice Biennale may remain empty after the decision.
