Forensic Architecture have pulled a solo exhibition from the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester after a statement expressing the group’s solidarity with Palestine was removed.
Headed ‘Forensic Architecture stands with Palestine’ the note came at the end of their solo show, a wide-ranging study on the after effects of chemical attacks and pollution, incorporating case studies from Syria Chile, Papua and Palestine itself. The sign went on to state: ‘We believe this liberation struggle is inseparable from other global struggles against racism, white supremacy, antisemitism, and settler colonial violence and we acknowledge its particularly close entanglement with the Black liberation struggle around the world.’
A group of pro-Israel pressure groups, including the Manchester Jewish Representative Council, North West Friends of Israel and the Manchester Zionist Central Council, complained. UK Lawyers for Israel described the statement at the gallery, which is owned and operated by the University of Manchester as ‘inflammatory language’ that portrayed ‘Israel as an occupation force engaged in ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and human and environmental destruction.’
In a letter to the group, Professor Nalin Thakkar, the vice-president of the university, apologised.
Rather than stand for the removal of the sign, Forensic Architecture, a group of architects, investigators and journalists who in 2018 were nominated for the Turner Prize, closed the show. While the Whitworth’s Twitter account posted that Cloud Studies was closed ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’ yesterday, no mention of the controversy is present on the institution’s website where general admission tickets can still be booked.
Forensic Architecture explained the reasoning behind their statement: ‘While working on this exhibition, we witnessed with horror yet another attack by Israel’s occupation forces on Palestinians. Partners and friends in Gaza told us first-hand about their experiences of the attacks that destroyed multi-storey buildings, homes, the offices of news organisations, schools, hospitals and businesses. The ferocity of the bombing produced man made environmental disasters with underground explosions leading to artificial earthquakes under Gaza City.’
‘At the same time,the targeting of agricultural storage facilities produced massive ‘airquakes’, with clouds of toxic fumes covering entire residential areas. Elsewhere across Palestine, we saw the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian neighbourhoods by Israeli police and settlers, and raids and tear gas use against cultural centres, including that of our collaborators and friends in Dar Jacir.’
