The Italian government has banned three Ghanaian curators from entering Italy to attend the Venice Architecture Biennale (May 20-November 26). The curators were traveling to the Italian city to work for Lesley Lokko, the first curator of African descent to oversee the prestigious event.
Under Lokko’s leadership, more than half of the participants in the 2023 edition of the Biennale are from Africa or the African diaspora. The general theme of the Biennale is titled Laboratory of the Future.
The Tories were denied visas due to unfounded fears of trying to flee the event and enter Italy illegally, according to Lokko. “Not all teams are equal,” Lokko remarked during his opening press conference. She went on to call the exclusion of her Ghanaian colleagues a symptom of the “ugly backside” of Italian immigration policy. But she hoped the news wouldn’t overshadow the opening of the Biennale: “At the moment it’s a headline story, but it can’t become the defining story of this exhibition,” she said. she stated. “It’s too easy, too predictable, too cheap.”
The three men were denied visas by Italy’s ambassador to Ghana, Daniela d’Orlandi, who publicly accused Lokko of trying to smuggle “non-essential young men” into the Schengen area in Europe.
In a statement shared on Twitter, Lokko described d’Orlandi as an “ambitious career diplomat seeking to carve out a place for herself with a right-wing government” – a reference to Italy’s new ruling coalition government led by the Prime populist minister Giorgia Meloni, who was elected to power in October 2022 on a strict anti-immigration platform.
“The refusal document from the Italian Embassy in Accra indicates ‘there are reasonable doubts as to your intention to leave the territory, or the State, before the expiration of your visa'”, he said. she said at the press conference. “No explanation was given on the doubts, reasonable or not.” The Biennale has confirmed The arts journal that return flights to Ghana had been booked for each of the curators in question.
Lokko staff were employed by the African Futures Institute, an initiative funded by a consortium that includes the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
In response to a request for comment from The arts journala spokesperson for the African Futures Institute said: “We do not want to allow this issue to detract from the hard work and effort that other contributors/participants have put into the exhibition over the past 18 months, nor to remove the successes. winners of the Golden Lion Awards.
In a lengthy statement shared with The arts journald’Orlandi said the vast majority of African artists who applied for visas to attend the Biennale obtained them.
“Our Embassy is deeply committed to promoting collaboration with Ghana in all sectors, including the cultural sector, and we spare no effort to facilitate the participation of Ghanaian artists in important art exhibitions or planned events. in Italy,” d’Orlandi wrote.
The Italian government, she said, had to comply with strict European Union regulations which led to the refusal of visas to the three Ghanaian conservatives in question.
“It would be restrictive to dwell only on a few visa refusals, which stem from the application of legislation that Italy and the other Schengen countries are required to respect,” she said in the statement.
On Twitter, architecture critic Olly Wainwright, who writes primarily for The Guardian newspaper, called d’Orlandi’s decision “disgusting”.
According to figures in the architectural sector, this is not the first time that the Italian government has apparently discriminated against African participants in the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Hannah La Roux, a Johannesburg-based architect and associate professor at Wits University, said in a tweet: “[This is] not news for those of us who hold an African passport. In the end, three months of payslips, proof of 100 euros per day, medical insurance of 600,000 as well as official invitations. And once inside, we cannot invite dependents to join us.
Killian Doherty, professor of architecture at Edinburgh College of Art, wrote in a tweet: “Not much has changed in 10 years. In 2012, I secured external funding for visas, travel and accommodation to take two of my Rwandan architecture students to see the Venice Biennale. The Italian authorities refused them entry due to a “high risk of flight”.
In a statement provided to The arts journala Venice Biennale spokesperson said:
“We believe it is important to clarify that Lesley Lokko, in her role as Director of AFI – African Future Institute of Accra in Ghana – and in agreement with La Biennale di Venezia, has asked her collaborators, who have worked in various capacities, to build the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of which she is the curator, to be on site in Venice for the first trial days of the exhibition, a significant moment which concludes the work to which they have devoted their work with great passion and commitment over the past few months.
“We applied for six visas for them as direct collaborators, as is routine for all collaborators. Accommodation had been found for each of them in Venice, and return tickets to Ghana had already been reserved. Visas have been refused to three of the collaborators, and one of them is still awaiting a response. We are currently in contact with the competent authorities to find a solution.
