On November 21, authorities from the German cities of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg canceled the 10th Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, which was planned for March 2024. The Biennale’s official reason was the purported “antisemitic content” posted to Facebook by one of the Biennale’s co-curators, Dhaka-based photojournalist Shahidul Alam, who was openly critical of the Israeli military’s campaign in Gaza following Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7. Together with photographers Tanzim Wahab and Munem Wasif, the three Bangladeshi artists and programmers of the Chobi Mela International Photography Festival in Dhaka were the first non-Europeans selected to program the Biennale.

Biennale organizers said they had voiced concerns to Alam, Wahab, and Wasif in an attempt to “sensitize the curators to Germany’s special historical responsibility for the state of Israel and its right to exist,” but Alam continued to post content online because, in the organizers’ description, he “sees himself as an activist and demands freedom of expression.” Meanwhile, Wahab and Wasif said they would not participate in the Biennale without Alam.

On November 28, Wasif shared a response written and signed by himself, Alam, and Wahab with ArtAsiaPacific’s editorial team. It is published below.

Statement by the curators of the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2024