South African Court Rejects Gabrielle Goliath’s Bid to Reinstate Canceled Venice Biennale Pavilion (updated)
28Feb. 21, 2026
A South African court ruled against artistGabrielle Goliathin her effort to reinstate her pavilion at the 2026Venice Biennaleafter it was abruptly canceled by South African Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie earlier this year. Judge Mamokolo Kubushi of the country’s North Gauteng High Court issued the verdict without explanation following a February 11 hearing, and awarded costs to the respondents, including McKenzie. The verdict, delivered according toArtnewsjust hours before the Biennale’s submission deadline, was a crushing blow to Goliath and possibly leaves South Africa with no representative at the prestigious event.[Update: The South African culture ministry announced on February 20 that no artist will represent the nation at the Venice Biennale and that nation’s pavilion would remain empty. The country had previously sent artists to every Biennale since 2011.]
Unanimously selected by an independent committee in December to represent her home country at the Biennale, Goliath had intended to present an updated iteration of herElegyproject, begun in 2015. The performance and video series addresses femicide killings of trans and gay people in South Africa as well as the Herero and Nama massacre conducted by German colonial forces in the 1900s in what is now Namibia. The new iteration was to have honored Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who died in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023.
Calling the work “highly divisive,” McKenzie requested that Goliath make several changes to it. When the artist refused, McKenzie canceled the pavilion eight days before the January 10 deadline for countries to submit their proposals to the Biennale. Goliath and the pavilion’s curator, Ingrid Masondo, called for the pavilion to be restored, arguing that McKenzie did not possess the contractual authority to end the exhibition and that the cancellation infringed on the artist’s constitutional right to freedom of speech.
Goliath and her team said they were “profoundly disappointed” with the outcome, describing the awarding of damages as “punitive” and the ruling as setting a “dangerous precedent, jeopardizing the rights of artists, curators, and creatives in South Africa to freedom of expression—freedom to dissent,” according to Artnet News. The artist has said she will appeal the ruling.