The New Dark Age

A call to disengage from Bristol’s Arnolfini until it stops censoring Palestine

Will you stand with arts workers in Bristol who are refusing to engage with Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts until its leadership commits to uphold freedom of expression on Palestine?

On the 21st November, the Arnolfini announced that they were cancelling two events by the Bristol Palestine Film Festival – censoring the creative expression of Palestinian artists and those who support them on the grounds that ‘political activity’ cannot be hosted at the venue.

Our open letter will be published on our website and released to the media once we have a critical mass of signatories. Please add your name using this form.And please do reach out if you have any questions.

In peace, hope and solidarity

An open letter from artists, cultural workers & organisations

We are alarmed by the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts’ censorship of Palestinian culture through its cancellation of two Bristol Palestine Film Festival events, forcing their relocation to other venues.

Arnolfini claimed it “could not be confident that the events would not stray into political activity”.

This had not been a serious concern in all the previous years that Arnolfini hosted the film festival. Nor had it been a problem with the many other exhibitions and public programmes that the centre hosted since its opening in 1961. Important events on decolonisation and Black Lives Matter, feminism and gender liberation, refugee and asylum seekers’ rights have all taken place without being seen to fall outside the venue’s “charitable purpose”.

Hundreds of Bristol residents, including many artists, have responded with incredulity to the Arnolfini’s claim. Some pointed out that last year Arnolfini made its space available for opposition to Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, with part of the ticket sales going to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine.

One person wrote that the purpose of art is to “to hold space for as many voices as possible, not to silence them. Removing events platforming Palestinian experiences IS a political move”. Another said, “If you only show artists’ work that focuses on oppression when it suits you, it’s called exploitation”. Meanwhile, a Bristol-organised open letter demanding a public explanation from the gallery for the cancellations has accumulated over 2,300 signatures.

The decision by a publicly funded venue to censor Palestinian film and poetry events is a particularly concerning part of an alarming pattern of censorship and repression within the arts sector.

In recent weeks, dozens of UN experts and hundreds of legal scholars have warned of “a genocide in the making” in Gaza. More than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and many Palestinian cultural institutions and over 100 heritage sites have been completely or partially destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. That the Arnolfini would choose to silence Palestinian voices and narratives at this exact moment is not merely a betrayal of the fundamental principles of pluralism and freedom in the arts, it is also inhumane.

Arnolfini has a rich historical heritage, benefiting from the wider artistic freedom that artists and their publics have fought for in Britain. This legacy cannot be allowed to fall prey to authoritarianism, racism and censorship. Anyone who cares about the democratic functioning of our cultural institutions should be deeply concerned.

As artists, audiences, and communities, we must take collective action to ensure our arts institutions uphold universally valued and legally enshrined rights to freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination.

Until the Arnolfini leadership publicly commits to consistently uphold freedom of expression, with no exception for Palestine, and genuinely engages with Bristol’s arts community to rectify the harm it has caused, we must, reluctantly, refuse cooperation with the arts centre and will not participate in any of its events.

We urge fellow artists, curators and audiences who value peace, justice and freedom for all people in Palestine/Israel to join us.

SIGNED:

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