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The Headlines
PAINTING OVER THE CRACKS: Amid ongoing fallout over sexual abuse allegations against Cesar Chavez, a prominent mural honoring the labor and farmworker leader was painted over yesterday in San Francisco, reports ABC 7 News. The artwork had adorned the Mission District’s Latin Rock Music House, a venue that has hosted legendary Latino performers over the years. “I did this to let everyone know. Let’s get the ball rolling. Let’s start right here and get this done,” said building owner Richard Segovia. Artist Carlos “Kookie” Gonzalez, who joined Segovia in painting over the mural, added: “In light of the allegations and confirmation of them, none of this is okay.”
NO STAGE FOR SPIN. Venice’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, made it clear on Thursday that Russia’s pavilion at the biennale will be shut down if it crosses the line into propaganda. But he stressed that the city should still be a space for dialogue and cultural exchange. Tensions have been high since Russia announced its return to Venice for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The program, unveiled by Russian cultural envoy Mikhail Shvydkoy on March 3, will feature a mix of folklore and world music. This announcement put Italy’s culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, and the biennale president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, at odds. Brugnaro told the Ansa news agency: “If the Russian government were to carry out propaganda, we would be the first to close the pavilion.” But he added, “In Venice, we practice diplomacy and openness… Russia, as a state, is a problem, but the Russian people are not. Culture mustn’t become censorship.”
The Digest
The forthcoming Rong Museum in Shenzhen’s Houhai district, built by tech billionaire Pony Ma Huateng, will be directed by Pi Li, who recently left his job as leading curator of Hong Kong’s Tai KwunContemporary. [South China Morning Post]
The Mexican government has asked eBay to cancel a sale of 195 pre-Hispanic objects, and return them to Mexico, after the country’s National Institute of Anthropology and History determined the artifacts were part of Mexican heritage and their sale illegal. But the Florida-based seller insists they were purchased legally. [The Art Newspaper]
On April 29, an immersive, site-specific soundscape by the Finnish artist Hans Rosenström opens at the FDR Four Freedoms State Park on Roosevelt Island in New York. [The Architect’s Newspaper]
The singer Jewel will present artworks at the Salone Verde in Venice, concurrently with the biennale, and in association with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, from May 9 to November 22. [press release]
The Kicker
ON WITH THE SHOW. The display cases have been left deliberately empty in a forthcoming Paris exhibition at the Institute du Monde Arabe about the ancient city of Byblos, located in today’s Lebanon. Why? It was too dangerous to ship their contents from Lebanon, where they reside, reports Le Monde. The country is enduring regular bombing from Israel in its war against Hezbollah. The exhibit “Byblos, Millennia-old City of Lebanon,” opening March 24, is already much delayed, due to on-and-off again conflicts in the region, but the institution opted to go ahead this time, and let the bare display cases speak, silently, for themselves. “We are afraid of becoming like Gaza. The silence surrounding Lebanon is brutal, deafening,” said curator of the exhibit, Tania Zaven.
