DUBAI: French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada and Filipino artist Cian Dayrit have opted to remove their artworks from an Barbican exhibition, titled “Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art.”
The decision comes as a response to the institution’s decision to cancel hosting a speech concerning the Israel-Gaza war, a move acknowledged by its chief executive to have stirred “significant concern about artistic freedom.”
Barrada criticized Barbican’s withdrawal from hosting the London Review of Books’ winter lecture series, which encompassed a talk by writer Pankaj Mishra titled “The Shoah after Gaza,” focusing on the Holocaust and allegations regarding Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Barrada said in a statement: “We cannot take seriously a public institution that does not hold a space for free thinking and debate, however challenging it might feel to some staff, board members, or anxious politicians.”
Claire Spencer, the Barbican’s chief executive, expressed her respect for the artists’ decision to withdraw their work. She also expressed regret over the inability to coordinate the “necessary logistical arrangements” to host the LRB series.
“We recognize this has created significant concern about artistic freedom and distress about which voices are given a platform to speak during this moment of deep humanitarian crisis, and those which are not,” she said.
“Our intention is to host the widest possible range of artists and thinkers, and we collaborate with thousands of different partners and organizations every year,” she said. “We hold ourself to a high standard and are committed to making sure that we have processes in place to make sure such situation doesn’t happen again.”
The withdrawal has led to the exhibition, scheduled to run until May 26, now lacking six significant artworks.
