Italy: ‘Venice Biennale Won’t Exclude Israel’, Perrotin Partners with eBay, Berlinale Film Festival Controversy Continues, and More: Morning Links for February 28, 2024

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.

THE HEADLINES

ISRAEL TO STAY AT VENICE BIENNALE. Italy’s culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said the Venice Biennale would not exclude Israel’s from participating in the upcoming exhibition, following recent calls for its ouster, which the minister called “shameful,” reports Alex Greenberger for ARTnews. The group Art Not Genocide Alliance penned an open letter signed by hundreds, calling Israel’s participation a “Genocidal Pavilion,” and claiming the festival was “platforming a genocidal apartheid state.” In a Tuesday statement, Sangiuliano said, “Israel not only has the right to express its art, but it has the duty to bear witness of its people precisely at a time like this when it has been attacked in cold blood by merciless terrorists.”

PERROTIN ON EBAY. Perrotin gallery is launching a partnership with eBay, and selling a selection of lithographs, posters, and artist editions via the Perrotin Store, a marketplace already up and running through eBay.fr. Items for sale include editions by the likes of Takashi Murakami, Sophie Calle, Claire Tabouret, Barry McGee, Mathilde Denize, JR, and Daniel Arsham, to name a few. In a press release today, the French gallery with international outposts stated that with this “historic” collaboration, both companies “hope to make art and beautiful objects accessible to all, for all budgets.” Founder Emmanuel Perrotin added that his family didn’t have the means to collect art when he grew up, but were always big fans of museum boutiques, and filled their home with posters. “That idea has always stayed with me in the development of the gallery. Art is for everyone!” he said.

THE DIGEST

German Minister of Culture Claudia Roth defended herself over calls for her resignation after she was seen applauding the controversial Berlinale film festival acceptance speeches of Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham and Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra, by saying on X (formerly Twitter) that her approval “was directed at the Jewish-Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham, who spoke out in favor of a political solution and peaceful coexistence in the region.” However, her hair-splitting response has unleashed a media storm, by implying she refused to applaud for the Abraham’s filming partner, the Palestinian Adra. [The Guardian]

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) recently issued an “amber alert” to the art storage industry about the risk of its facilities being used for money laundering, tax evasion, and terrorist financing through its “long-term storage and concealment of high value assets by sanctioned persons.” [ARTnews]

Ukrainian artist Mikhail Reva’s sculptures made by debris from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have gone on view in Paris. The artist gathered more than two tons of war remnants, including Kalashnikov cartridges and rocket fragments fired on his own house to make the works exhibited at the US Embassy’s Hotel de Talleyrand in Paris. [Euronews and The Associated Press]

The California College of the Arts (CCA) has appointed Daisy Nam as the next director and chief curator of its Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. [Artforum]

Laura Turcan is named the new director of Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris.[Le Quotidien de l’Art]

THE KICKER

LOUIS JOHNSON DISCOVERY. A rarely seen, two-part film featuring master choreographer Louis Johnson, who worked in New York city in the 1950s and 60s, is given new visibility and context in a New York Times feature that shouldn’t be missed. The story of Johnson, who described himself as the “first Black Black” student at the School of American Ballet in 1950, is one of struggling against segregation, including being told Black bodies were not meant for ballet, and being denied acceptance to the New York City Ballet because of race. He nevertheless went on to perform on Broadway and created his own dance project, early aspects of which can be seen in the film, which the NYT scanned and digitally restored from its original print, housed at Manhattan’s Film-Makers’ Cooperative. Titled “Two by Louis Johnson,” the film was directed and shot by Richard Preston, showing works choreographed by Johnson during the civil rights movement. Johnson ultimately found success and worked for the Metropolitan Opera and received a Tony.