The decision that Khaled Sabsabi will no longer participate in the 61st Venice Biennale on behalf of Australia comes only five days after he was appointed. The motivation is that the government's art funding organization Creative Australia wants to avoid "a divisive debate", writes The Guardian.
Sabsabi, who fled the civil war in Lebanon, has among other things depicted the Shia militia Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed last year. He has also made a video about the attack on the Twin Towers in the USA on September 11, called "Thank you very much" – and has created critical works about the Islamic State.
The board of Creative Australia made the unanimous decision. They claim to be for artistic freedom but are afraid that the choice of Sabsabi could lead to a long-lasting debate that could "undermine our goal of bringing Australians together through art and creativity."
The decision comes after the government has been strongly criticized by the opposition for what some have considered an inadequate response to a wave of anti-Semitic attacks in recent months. Conservative Senator Claire Chandler wondered in a Senate debate why one allows "art that glorifies a terrorist leader" to represent Australia.
Others have, however, pointed out that Sabsabi deliberately plays on Western fear of cultural differences, and that his works are much more ambiguous than what critics claim.
