Turkish Muslim artist offers to stand by Israeli colleague Shahar Marcus
November 5, 2023, The Jerusalem Post, click here to listen.
Artworks by some Israeli artists were canceled before the Sunday opening of the 10th annual edition of the Mediations Biennale at Art Istanbul Feshane.
The Turkish organizers informed curator Drorit Gur Arie that works she had selected by Ran Slavin, Shahar Marcus, and Lee Yanor, would be removed. The reason given for the cancellation was fear of mob violence should it be discovered that Israeli artworks were on display during the war.
Gur Arie’s exhibit “Shape the Beauty” was removed, however, other Israeli works selected by Israeli curator Belu Simion Fainaru were not. Israel is absent from the Biennale’s site, as is Romania. This despite the fact that Fainaru is showing works by Romanian artist Ciprian Muresan. However, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan – once home to another Fainaru selection, artist Lela Ahmadzai, currently based in Germany – is on the exhibition’s site.