Just a week after the announcement of Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino as the Australian representative team of the 2026 Venice Biennale, Creative Australia has made the call to drop the duo due to furious responses over a number of the artist’s controversial pieces.
Their appointment brought fresh attention to several of Sabsabi’s early works, including You, a 2007 video installation featuring Hassan Nasrallah, the recently assassinated leader of the Hezbollah, reciting words that were spoken at a victory rally at the end of a month-long war with Israel in the south of Lebanon. Another work, Thank You Very Much (2006), depicts a video rendering of the 9/11 attacks.
Sabsabi and his family fled the Lebanese Civil War in 1977 when he was still a child, moving to Australia. For over 35 years, his arts practice has viewed the world through a critical lens.
The decision to remove him as Australia’s official Venice representative was reportedly made due to political pressure. Liberal senator Claire Chandler raised her concerns in Parliament House earlier this week, saying, “With such appalling antisemitism in our country, why is the Albanese government allowing the person who highlights a terrorist leader in his artwork to represent Australia on the international stage?”
Creative Australia released a statement late Thursday night (13 February), reproduced below in its entirety:
”The Board of Creative Australia has made the unanimous decision not to proceed with the artistic team chosen for the Venice Biennale 2026.
“Creative Australia is an advocate for freedom of artistic expression and is not an adjudicator on the interpretation of art. However, the Board believes a prolonged and divisive debate about the 2026 selection outcome poses an unacceptable risk to public support for Australia’s artistic community and could undermine our goal of bringing Australians together through art and creativity.
”Creative Australia will be reviewing the selection process for the Venice Biennale 2026.”
In a statement shared with Hyperallergic, Sabsabi and Dagostino say they are “extremely hurt and disappointed” in the decision. “We intended to present a transformational work in Venice, an experience that would unite all audiences in an open and safe shared space. This reflects and builds on the work we have done for decades and will do for many more. Art should not be censored as artists reflect the times they live in.”
Read: Exhibition review: Khaled Sabsabi, The Lock-Up
Some from the arts sector have already taken to social media to respond to Creative Australia’s announcement, including independent curator Tian Zhang and recently appointed Director of Canberra Contemporary, Sophia Cai, who voiced their shock.
In a letter to Creative Australia, artist and advocate Kate Just writes, “The decision fails to uphold the work of artists to interrogate complex personal and political histories and the urgent issues of our time… It will likely lead to protests, legal battles and a total loss of faith from the majority of the art world – who will stand by and with Sabsabi.”
Just adds, “Sabsabi shows us what is wrong with our society and imagines how it might be possible to transform our view of it.”
Others have criticised Creative Australia’s failure to follow its principle of “arms-length funding”, which should be “free of interference from the government of the day”.
ArtsHub will continue to follow the impact of this announcement.
Read: Resignations and uproar follow Creative Australia’s Venice Biennale decision
Update 14 February 11.40am
An open letter has been penned by the artists and curators shortlisted for the 2026 Australian Pavilion, including James Nguyen, Hayley Millar Baker, Mel O’Callaghan, Jenna Mayilema Lee, Tamsin Hong and Tony Albert.
Addressing the Board of Creative Australia, they voice their support of Sabsabi and Dagostino: “We believe that revoking support for the current Australian artist and curator representatives for Venice Biennale 2026 is antithetical to the goodwill and hard-fought artistic independence, freedom of speech and moral courage that is at the core of arts in Australia, which plays a crucial role in our thriving and democratic nation.”
The collective asks that Sabsabi and Dagostino be reinstated in time for the 2026 Venice Biennale.
