Gabrielle Goliath: subverting censorship and showing why art matters with a decade long performance piece in Venice

Gabrielle Goliath: subverting censorship and showing why art matters with her decade long performance piece Elegy at Chiesa di Sant’Antonin in Venice

Sometimes in the rush and muddle of life it’s easy to question the value of art. In the school run, the packing of lunches and food shops, art can be forgotten. Particularly amongst headlines of inflation, the climate crisis and genocide art becomes inconsequential. 

But amongst torrents of rain and sky splitting thunder I am reminded again why art matters.  Haunting tones of women dressed in black reverberate around the marble columns and murals of Chiesa di Sant’Antonin. I can’t think of a more appropriate setting for Gabrielle Goliath’s Elegy as the performances are nothing less than spiritual. An immersion in sound, feeling and humanity which gets to the centrality of what art, at its very best, can convey.

As one woman finishes her note another steps up to hold the mantle – a metaphor perhaps for the support women give one another and the imperative to sustain this sound. A sound, laden with grief and emotion, which commemorates and memorialises the death and discrimination of women and queer folk across South Africa, through acts of femicide and war.

Originally chosen to represent South Africa at the 2026 Biennale, Goliath was very publicly, and controversially, dropped from the pavilion after members of the government objected to Goliath’s inclusion of her work Elegy for a poet. The piece references the loss of Palestinian poet and activist Heba Abunada, who was killed in an airstrike in Gaza, alongside her son. To accompany the work Goliath commissioned poet Maneo Mohale to create a ghazal (a traditional Arabic ode) commemorating Abunada’s death.  In an act of resistance and courage, befitting of the work itself, Goliath and curator, Ingrid Masondo, alongside support from art charity Ibraaz, have defied this censorship and staged the monumental, eight screen performance independently.

The poignant work also marks the loss of five and a half thousand women and LGBTIQ+ people, murdered in just one year. The haunting and melodious vocal performance  reminiscent of the resonance of a singing bowl highlights the healing act and significance of shared grief and giving voice to pain. The visible absence of the empty plinth on the final screen of the installation conveys a profound sense of loss and ‘a call for performance to be’ for lives yet to be lost.

An ongoing work, beginning in 2015, Goliath marks the continuation of the crisis her country, and much of the world face, in providing safety and equality for marginalised communities. In the midst of controversy and challenge though, Goliath’s voice and vision shine as a monument and protest against this status-quo and anyone who tries to preserve it.

Elegy, on until 31st July 2026,

Chiesa di Sant’Antonin, Venice.

elegyinvenice.com

Main photo: Elegy by Gabrielle Goliath – Photo Credit: Beth Primrose