‘Corruption of principles’: Venice Biennale sacking fallout grows
Australia’s much-lauded winner of the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Biennale, Archie Moore, has lashed the decision by Creative Australia’s board to strip the nation’s selected representatives of the chance to exhibit at the eminent arts festival.
Moore and curator Ellie Buttrose said they were appalled by the decision of the board to rescind the contract of Khaled Sabsabi “quickly and without transparent process” following questions and “politically motivated accusations” in parliament last week.
Indigenous artist Archie Moore won the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for his Kith and Kin pavilion.Credit: Andrea Rossetti
“It is distressing to see that the arm’s length objectivity of the Australian Pavilion’s selection process is so easily undone and that the independence of Creative Australia is so quickly compromised,” they said in a statement.
“To regain its credibility, Creative Australia must return to its founding mandate: supporting artistic practice, advocating for freedom of expression, and promoting the understanding of the arts.”
“The decision by Creative Australia Board to remove the 2026 Artistic Team is a corruption of its core principles, and the longer term and wider implications for Australian artists, art professionals and audiences are unacceptable.”
Moore and Buttrose were the first Australian team to be awarded the top prize at the prestigious event in 2024 for their project kith and kin – a chalked genealogy that ranged across the walls of the Australian Pavilion.
Lebanese-born Sabsabi and the much-respected curator Michael Dagostino were named as Moore and Buttrose’s successors for the 2026 Venice Biennale earlier this month.
Five days later, the board revoked the contract in a snap meeting convened in the aftermath of Coalition questions in the Senate about the artist’s 2006 video rendering of the New York 9/11 attacks, called Thank You Very Much, and a 2007 work depicting the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
