More than 1,000 cultural figures—including the artists Ben Rivers, Brian Eno and Tai Shani—are refusing to work with the Arnolfini contemporary arts centre in Bristol, UK, after the institution cancelled two events last month as part of the city’s Palestine Film Festival.
In an open letter, the signatories say that “the decision by a publicly funded venue to censor Palestinian film and poetry events is a particularly concerning part of an alarming pattern of censorship and repression within the arts sector.” Arnolfini receives funding from Arts Council England and the University of the West of England; the Arnolfini was contacted for comment.
The Bristol Palestine Film Festival, hosted across five venues from 2 to 10 December, is described as "the very best in contemporary Palestinian cinema, arts and culture".
The events cancelled at Arnolfini included a screening of Farha (2021), a coming-of-age film by the Jordanian-Palestinian writer Darin J. Sallam, which was due to be followed by a panel discussion featuring the Palestinian writer and doctor Ghada Karmi.
In a statement posted on 21 November, Arnolfini said it took the “difficult decision” to pull the screening and a poetry night headlined by the rapper Lowkey, adding that “hosting events which combine film, performance and discussion panels meant we could not be confident that the event would not stray into political activity”.
But in the open letter, the signatories state: “This had not been a serious concern in all the previous years that Arnolfini hosted the film festival. Nor had it been a problem with the many other exhibitions and public programmes that the centre hosted since its opening in 1961. Important events on decolonisation and Black Lives Matter, feminism and gender liberation, refugee and asylum seekers’ rights have all taken place without being seen to fall outside the venue’s ‘charitable purpose’.”
The letter adds: “Until the Arnolfini leadership publicly commits to consistently uphold freedom of expression, with no exception for Palestine, and genuinely engages with Bristol’s arts community to rectify the harm it has caused, we must, reluctantly, refuse cooperation with the arts centre and will not participate in any of its events.” Other signatories include the artists Adham Faramawy, Amy Sharrocks and Basim Magdy.
The cancellation first prompted another open letter, published on 20 November, which heavily criticised the Arnolfini’s decision; it has so far garnered more than 2,300 signatures.
