The artist reportedly alleges that South Africa’s minister of culture acted unconstitutionally in canceling her commission, which included references to Gaza.
Isa Farfan
January 21, 2026
— 2 min read
Artist Gabrielle Goliath and curator Ingrid Masondo, who were dropped from South Africa's 2026 Venice Biennale commission (photo by ZUNIS, courtesy Gabrielle Goliath studio)
Artist Gabrielle Goliath is reportedly planning to take legal action against South Africa’s right-wing arts and culture minister after he decided to drop her Venice Biennale commission, which included references to Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Goliath and curator Ingrid Masondo, who were tapped by an independent committee in December to represent South Africa at the 2026 event, are preparing to file a court case against Gayton McKenzie, the country's minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, the Art Newspaper reported. Earlier this month, McKenzie, who also leads South Africa’s right-wing Patriotic Alliance, scrapped Goliath and Monsondo’s pavilion and performance series Elegy, expressing concerns that the pavilion would become a “proxy arena for geopolitical conflicts.”
Elegy would have addressed the "unfolding crisis of displacement and death in Gaza," among other forms of violence, a representative of Goliath's studio told Hyperallergic earlier this week. The performance also included references to the Israeli military's killing of the Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada and the femicide in South Africa.
The legal filing reportedly alleges that McKenzie acted unconstitutionally by throwing out the duo’s pavilion plans and is set to be filed in the High Court in Pretoria, one of the country’s three capital cities, on Thursday, January 22.
Goliath, Masondo, and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture have not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s requests for comment.
The cancellation of Goliath's pavilion proposal was widely rebuked by artists and by the Venice Biennale selection committee as an act of censorship, a claim which the South African culture ministry rejected in a statement to Hyperallergic earlier this month.
A spokesperson for the ministry also alleged to Hyperallergic that an unnamed “foreign country was funding or partly funding this exhibition.” The South African news outlet Daily Maverick later reported that the Qatar Museums intended to purchase artworks from the South African pavilion at the end of the event.
Critics of the ministry's abrupt cancellation also characterized the move as a betrayal of South Africa's official stance in support of Gaza. McKenzie has made public remarks denying that Israel is committing genocide, despite findings by the United Nations and several human rights groups.
The minister’s actions are reportedly already under investigation by Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, a high-powered watchdog official. Hyperallergic has contacted the Public Protector’s office for comment on the investigation.
According to a Venice Biennale spokesperson, participating countries had until January 19 to submit their proposals for their national pavilions.
