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There are calls for an urgent inquiry into federal arts body Creative Australia’s decision to revoke its invitation to the artistic duo selected for the Venice Biennale.
Lebanese Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino had been chosen to attend the 2026 event earlier in February, but Creative Australia rescinded their invitation last Thursday.
The about-face followed a report by The Australian and questions in federal parliament by Liberal senator Claire Chandler about Sabsabi’s early artworks, which reference the 9/11 terrorist attacks and former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the Greens’ spokesperson for the arts, has called for an independent inquiry into the decision, saying Creative Australia had succumbed to pressure from conservative media and politicians.
“It’s an appalling capitulation that has plunged arts policy in Australia into crisis,” she said.
“This is nothing short of an international arts embarrassment for Australia.”
Creative Australia said on Thursday its board had decided unanimously to rescind the invitation.
But artist Lindy Lee has quit her post as a director of the funding body, following a board meeting she describes as “fraught”.
“Nobody except those involved can ever know how fraught and heartbreaking that meeting was,” Lee said in an online statement.
“I could not live with the level of violation I felt against one of my core values — that the artist’s voice must never be silenced,” she said.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called for an independent inquiry into the decision to rescind Sabsabi and Dagostino’s invitation. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
Artist Garry Trinh, who, like Sabsabi, works in western Sydney, said Sabsabi should not be replaced.
“No artist with any conscience should accept the show in place of Khaled Sabsabi,” he posted online.
He also named each of the 14 directors on the Creative Australia board and called for the board to be dissolved.
“The board has caused irrefutable damage to the legitimacy of the Australian Venice Biennale team,” he said.
The five other artistic teams shortlisted for Venice issued an open letter to Creative Australia on Friday, calling for Sabasbi and Dagostino to be reinstated.
The decision to pull Sabsabi and Dagostino from their appointments means Australia has gone from winning Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion to the possibility it may not send anyone to the prestigious art event.
In a first for Australia, artist Archie Moore and curator Ellie Buttrose for the artwork kith and kin in 2024.
Creative Australia now faces the prospect of an artist boycott of the 2026 Biennale.
