Six artists said they withdrew from an exhibition at the MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome over its “stance on the ongoing genocide in Gaza and on the brutal occupation of Palestine.”
In a letter published on the website Nero, international artists including Tania Bruguera and Phil Collins, alongside several Italian pro-Palestine action groups, cited the museum’s alleged ties to “entities directly complicit” in Israeli aggression toward Palestinians in Gaza and in the Occupied West Bank, including a collaboration with the energy company Eni.
“We call on art and cultural workers to join the boycott until the museum unequivocally denounces Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the colonization of Palestine, and commits to severing all ties with companies complicit in crimes against humanity,” the letter reads.
Siniša Mitrović, Alessandra Saviotti, Gemma Medina, and Dora Garcia also signed the missive, published on Monday, October 27, two days before the opening of 1+1: The Relational Years. The exhibition is curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, who coined the term “relational aesthetics.”
The artists cited a collaboration between MAXXI and Eni, an Italian company, on a series of artworks on view at the company’s complex in Rome. The energy firm has reportedly received an Israeli offshore oil exploration license, which the artist’s letter claims allows it to drill in the waters off the coast of Gaza.
MAXXI has not responded to Hyperallergic’s inquiries, and it is unclear whether the artists’ works have been removed from the show. Hyperallergic has attempted to contact all of the artist signatories as well as the exhibition’s curator for comment.
Last month, protesters targeted Eni’s oil-exporting vessels in Taranto, Italy, which were believed to be intended for Israel. The letter also names and accuses MAXXI of having “a history of partnerships” with Leonardo S.p.A., a European arms manufacturer; its foundation for culture Med-Or; the geospacial information company e-GEOS; and satellite company Telespazio. The letter did not specify what collaborations the museum had undertaken with the companies.
The artists said collaborations with the named entities are part of a “broader and persistent pattern of institutional choices which reveal the museum’s role in legitimizing zionist propaganda and narratives that enable the systematic erasure of Palestinian culture, history, and life.”
In a separate letter published in the same Nero article, the Palestine activist groups Galassia Antisionista, Vogliamo Tutt’Altro, BDS Roma, Il Campo Innocente, and ANGA stated their intent to “expose the complicity of art institutions with the military industrial complex.”
The groups have been boycotting cultural institutions, including MAXXI, in solidarity with Palestine, the letter said.
“This decision underscores our conviction that, as artists, we must take responsibility for the injustices our work might otherwise be used to justify, legitimize, and art-wash,” the artists wrote.
