This week, a group of 25 artists and cultural workers have announced their disassociation from the Zabludowicz Collection. The artists cite the private foundation’s continuous ties to the Israeli state as the motivation.
The group mailed copies of BDZ’s template letter to Zabludowicz Collection Gallery in London, asking to withdraw “all conceptual content” from work created for the Collection and its affiliates Daata Editions, Fair, and Times Square Space.
According to a letter an artwork, commission, curatorial programming, exhibition, or event are all included in the letter as deauthorized as a protest. In 2014, BDZ
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BDZ began advocating for a boycott of the Zabludowicz Foundation in 2014. They say that the boycott continues until the Zabludowicz Art Trust publicly acknowledges Palestinian rights and ceases all activities and investments supporting Israel’s cruel apartheid system.
The art world sees their act similar to the protest in 2017 of the American artist Richard Prince. He symbolically declared his portrait of Ivanka Trump, to be “fake,” returning the $36,000 he was paid for in 2014. Prince claiming he couldn’t bear the notion of one of his paintings being in the Trump family’s collection.
According to news.artnet citing BDZ, the group includes Benedict Drew, Item Idem, Jasmine Johnson, Olivia Erlanger, Sam Cottington, Amalia Pica, Cécile B. Evans, Gery Georgieva, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Jacob Farrell, Anton Haugen, Stewart Home, Kelly Large, Scott Mason, Uriel Orlow, Hardeep Pandhal, Rachel Pimm, Aura Satz, Abri de Swardt, Ellen Mara de Wachter, Richard Whitby, Jack Strange, Laura Yuile, Gary Zhexi Zhang and Harold Offeh.
Poju Zabludowicz is the founder and CEO of Tamares Group which manages a portfolio worth $3 billion. It owns 2.3 million square feet of office space. Zabludowicz is also the former CEO of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, BICOM, which advocates for Israel before the UK government.
Zabludowicz was excused for investing in real estate constructed for Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. Tamares continues to invest in Knafaim Holdings Ltd, which provides the Israeli Air Force with military aircraft maintenance services’ through a variety of maintenance contracts. Poju also contributes substantial funds to the British Conservative party. Tamares is also a significant investor in Peter Thiel’s clandestine US technology business Palantir, which “powers ICE immigration raids, the defense sector, and law enforcement monitoring.” (Source: The Guardian).
