South Africa has scrapped a performance mourning victims of Israel’s genocide on Gaza that was selected for the country’s 2026 Venice Biennale pavilion. In a statement to Hyperallergic, a spokesperson for the nation’s Department of Sport, Arts and Culture said the pavilion “should not be used to amplify similarly divisive global disputes that do not center South Africa’s own story,” adding: “We need to use our platforms to sell our country to the world.” Artist Gabrielle Goliath and curator Ingrid Masondo’s proposal, titled “Elegy” after Goliath’s decade-long vocal performance series, had been chosen by an independent committee in December. According to reporting by the South African publication Daily Maverick, the decision to reject the artwork originated from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture’s minister, Gayton McKenzie, the founder of the right-wing Patriotic Alliance party. Goliath’s pavilion performance would have addressed the “unfolding crisis of displacement and death...