A statement in support of Palestinian rights put up by Forensic Architecture as part of an exhibition at the University of Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery is back in its rightful place tonight after backlash against the message caused the group to temporarily withdraw the exhibition over censorship concerns.
The group shared a social media post on Wednesday showcasing the re-installation of their statement that decried the “ethnic cleansing” of the country as a prominent introduction to their exhibition titled Cloud Studies which opened on July 2nd. The exhibition outlines FA's initial phase of the latest investigation which explores and exposes how “power reshapes the very air we breathe," according to a brief posted on the group's website.
Our statement is back up! pic.twitter.com/uwE5pJM7Am
— Forensic Architecture (@ForensicArchi) August 18, 2021
Read Forensic Architecture's statement standing with Palestine here.
The move came after the announcement earlier in the week that the gallery would reinstall the group’s statement on the IDF’s criminal 11-day bombing campaign in occupied territories this May. The exhibition focused on chemical irritants and environmental racism in an expansion of a project originally created, and then withdrawn, from the 2019 Whitney Biennial that eventually led to the resignation of board member Warren Kanders.
The note was originally taken down after a pro-Israel group of lawyers called UKFI organized against its “one-sided” message. FA founder Eyal Weizman is a native of Haifa, which has historically been one of several flashpoints of the occupation.
The Manchester saga is the latest in a spate of pro-Palestinian projects undertaken by the group since 2010. Recently, FA has set its sights on the spyware activities of an Israeli software giant with the help of Edward Snowden. The group is also currently engaged in an investigation into the shooting death of an unarmed 26-year-old Palestinian at the hands of Israeli security forces last June. FA's full statement can be viewed here.
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