Indian artists boycott show at Tel Aviv art museum

Nora Barrows-Friedman Activism and BDS Beat 1 August 2011

Indian artists, invited by the curators of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art to participate in an exhibition of work from India next Spring, have signed a public statement refusing the invitation in solidarity with the Palestinian-led call for boycott, divestment and sanctions. 

In a statement published on the website for PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, the artists said they “refuse to legitimize the illegal racist and apartheid policies of the Israeli Government against the people of Palestine and to become a part of ‘Brand Israel.’”

The statement reads in full:

The first major show of Indian art, “Deconstructing India,” is planned for Spring 2012 in the new wing of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel.

We, the undersigned artists, who have been invited by the curators to participate in this show, have declined to exhibit our work, in solidarity with the International Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel called by Palestinian intellectuals and artists, and the India Campaign. The Boycott, inspired by the earlier successful international boycott against Apartheid South Africa, is a peaceful, non-violent Gandhian campaign, which is directed at mainstream institutions and not at individuals, to pressurize Israel to recognize the rights of the Palestine people. 

The newly built Amir Wing of the Tel Aviv Museum designed by American architect Preston Scott Cohen is planned to be a showpiece for the discredited Israeli Government to increase its status and prestige internationally at a time when the country’s image is at its lowest ebb. 

By declining to participate in this show, we refuse to legitimize the illegal racist and apartheid policies of the Israeli Government against the people of Palestine and to become a part of “Brand Israel.”

Signatures :

Nalini Malani

Anita Dube

Amar Kanwar

Sakshi Gupta

Pushpamala N

In solidarity with the Boycott:

Artists

Vivan Sundaram

Ayisha Abraham

Ram Rahman

Sharmila Samant

Sunil Gupta

Gauri Gill

Inder Salim

Vibha Galhotra

Vasudha Thozhur

Tushar Joag

Indrapramit Roy

Arunkumar HG

Shakuntala Kulkarni

Archana Hande

Monali Meher

Suresh Jayaram 

Art Scholars

Geeta Kapoor

Ashish Rajadhyaksha

Chaitanya Sambrani

Kajri Jain

Nuzhat Kazmi

R. Nandakumar

 

Comments

picture

Bert Gedin replied on

To Indian Artists. Your action is showing that your consciences reach outside the borders of India, to a country with aparteid policies. By so doing, you deserve solidarity of right-thinking people of the world.

Nora Barrows-Friedman

Nora Barrows-Friedman's picture

Nora Barrows-Friedman is a staff writer and associate editor at The Electronic Intifada, and is the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine (Just World Books, 2014).