The Icelandic Art Center (IAC) in Reykjavik—the commissioner of artist Christoph Büchel’s mosque in a disused church at this year’s Venice Biennale which was shut down by city authorities—has filed a claim seeking the immediate reopening of the project.
The mosque, based at the former Catholic church of Santa Maria della Misericordia in the Cannaregio neighbourhood, was closed late May after being open for only two weeks. The IAC is also asking for €360,000 in compensation from the city of Venice for the closure of the mosque, as well as an unspecified sum for “damages”.
The Padua-based lawyer Marco Ferrero who has represented local Muslim groups on numerous occasions, lodged the claim with the supervisory court for the Veneto Region on behalf of the Icelandic Art Center earlier this month, according to a report in the Venetian newspaper La Nuova.
The IAC was granted access to the city’s files on the Büchel project which outline alleged breaches of health and safety regulations submitted by officials who claim that the number of visitors exceeded the capacity of the building on several occasions. These constitute adequate legal grounds for closure of the project, says the city council. According to international press reports, the authorities also argue that the mosque poses a security threat and could incite attacks by Islamist extremists.
The IAC has gathered testimonies from leading international curators including the Italian scholar Germano Celant who, says an Icelandic Art Center spokeswoman, have vouched that the mosque is indeed a work of art (Celant could not be reached for comment).
In May, the IAC issued a statement saying that the purpose of the project was “to provide a platform for dialogue about and communication between different cultural positions”.
The court in Venice is scheduled to examine the case on 29 July and announce its decision a few days later.
Update, 31 July: The IAC says that it refutes the alleged breaches put forward by the city council. "Occupancy of the pavilion has been tracked consistently by staff and has, after the opening day, never gone above 100 people at one time," says a statement on its website.
See also It’s official: Christoph Büchel’s Venice Biennale mosque is closed to the public
