Two artists have withdrawn their work from a critically acclaimed Barbican exhibition because of the institution’s decision to pull out of hosting a speech about the Israel-Gaza conflict, which its chief executive acknowledged had caused “significant concern about artistic freedom”.
The French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada and the Filipino artist Cian Dayrit requested the Barbican take down two works each from Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, leaving large gaps in a major show.
Barrada criticised the Barbican’s decision to back out of hosting the London Review of Books’ winter lecture series, including a talk by the writer Pankaj Mishra that was titled The Shoah after Gaza and was about the Holocaust and allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
In a statement, Barrada said: “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.”
The Barbican’s chief executive, Claire Spencer, said she respected the decision of the artists to withdraw their work, adding that she regretted not being able to get the “necessary logistical arrangements in place” to host the LRB series.
“We recognise 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 organisations every year. 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 Unravel exhibition is now without six major artworks. The collectors Lorenzo Legarda Leviste and Fahad Mayet withdrew two quilts by the Gee’s Bend artist Loretta Pettway after accusing the Barbican of engaging in “censorship and repression” for backing out of the LRB series.
Leviste and Mayet said “artistic freedom is under threat” at the Barbican.
Unravel, which was given a five-star review by the Guardian and runs until 26 May, now has empty plinths where Pettway’s work was, with a note explaining they have been removed as “an act of solidarity with Palestine” and as a result of the LRB decision. The same signage will now replace the newly removed works.
The Barbican confirmed there were no plans to close the show.
When the Guardian revealed the LRB cancellation in February, the Barbican said because the event was publicised “prematurely” it did not have time to “do the careful preparation needed for this sensitive content”.
Mishra criticised the Barbican’s decision, saying a “pervasive sense of fear and panic” was closing down debate on the issue within cultural spaces, while the LRB said it was “disappointed that the Barbican withdrew from hosting the lectures at a late stage”. Mishra’s lecture instead took place on 28 February at Saint James’s church in Clerkenwell.
Dr Toby Simpson, the director of the Wiener Holocaust Library, said the Barbican’s decision not to host the talk was not necessarily a sign of panic. “There has always been a need for sensitivity when dealing with the Holocaust, due to its unprecedented scale, complexity and shocking inhumanity,” he said.
The withdrawals add to a difficult few months at the Barbican. It was forced to apologise last year after it was accused of censorship when it asked a Palestinian speaker to avoid discussing “free Palestine” at length during an event in June.
It described the decision as unacceptable and “a serious error of judgment”, for which it was “deeply sorry”.
