> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Over 100 Artists and Intellectuals Call for Withdrawal from Creative Time Exhibition
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/over-100-artists-and-intellectuals-call-for-withdrawal-from-creative-time-exhibition/
- Published: 2014-06-10T19:21:21.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:33:20.000Z
- Description: Over 100 artists and intellectuals — including Judith Butler, Lucy Lippard, Chantal Mouffe, Walid Raad, Martha Rosler, and Gayatri Spivak — have signed on to a public letter calling on participants to withdraw from Creative Time's traveling Living as Form exhibition on the grounds that it is current
- Author: Mostafa Heddaya
- Tags: News, BDS, Creative Time, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1)

![A view of the "Living as Form" exhibition in New York, October 2011 (photo Allison Meier/Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/06/6271077038_16f4b2abba_z.jpg)

A view of the “Living as Form” exhibition as it appeared in New York, October 2011 (photo Allison Meier/Hyperallergic)

Over 100 artists and intellectuals — including Judith Butler, Lucy Lippard, Chantal Mouffe, Walid Raad, Martha Rosler, and Gayatri Spivak — have signed on to [a public letter](https://hyperallergic.com/content/files/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/06/bds-open-letter-final.pdf) calling on participants to withdraw from Creative Time’s traveling [*Living as Form*](http://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2011/livingasform/about.htm?ref=hyperallergic.com)exhibition on the grounds that it is currently showing at an institution with a “central role in maintaining the unjust and illegal occupation of Palestine.” The missive comes in response to [revelations last week](https://hyperallergic.com/creative-time-reneges-on-promise-to-bds-artists-with-israel-exhibition-artist-withdraws/) that the important social practice exhibition curated by Nato Thompson had been touring in Israel for six months unbeknownst to participants, including its present appearance at The Technion, a university in Haifa with extensive research-and-development links to the Israeli military and defense technology industry.

Authored by a new group called the [BDS Arts Coalition](http://bdsartscoalition.tumblr.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), the letter to participating artists details The Technion’s military work, including the development of drones and unmanned bulldozers, and invokes the [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,%5FDivestment%5Fand%5FSanctions?ref=hyperallergic.com) (BDS) movement. “Creative Time and ICI are, according to their statements, choosing to disregard the BDS call and unwilling to withdraw the exhibition. They have placed the responsibility on artists to do so,” the letter reads.

Reached for comment regarding the contents of the letter, Creative Time provided Hyperallergic the following statement:

> The open letter reflects the seriousness surrounding issues pertaining to Israel and Palestine as well as considerations of social justice, art and the infrastructures within which we participate. We fully respect artists making their positions known. It should be noted that some artists have signed this letter and others have not. We are thinking through the implications of the letter and more broadly how this organization fits within a larger constellation where art meets social justice as there are various meaningful ways to contribute to social and political change. At Creative Time, you can count on the fact that we are giving this issue the time, thought and care it deserves.

![Carolina Caycedo's installation lit up in 5 different languages outside the historic Essex Street Market everytime someone came up from the subway exit pictured. (photo by Janelle Grace for Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/10/blessings.jpg)

Carolina Caycedo’s installation in ‘Living as Form’ (2011) (photo Janelle Grace/Hyperallergic)

According to Renaud Proch of Independent Curators International, the organization responsible for touring the exhibition, eight artists and collectives have withdrawn thus far, including Allora & Calzadilla, Ultra Red, Women on Waves, Basurama, Celine Condorelli & Gavin Wade, Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency, Chto Delat, and US Social Forum (USSF). (Proch added that USSF did not show in Israel, while Ultra Red appeared at the Tel Aviv venue but not at The Technion; as we have [previously noted](https://hyperallergic.com/two-more-artists-chto-delat-and-us-social-forum-withdraw-from-creative-time-exhibition/), exhibition venues select from a large roster of artists and works in *Living as Form*.)

“There’s this supreme irony that of all exhibitions to find themselves in this position, it’s *Living as Form*,” said the art historian Yates McKee, a member of the BDS Arts Coalition who moderated a talk for the show when it was in New York. McKee further stated that in addition to informing the public, the goal of the [newly-inaugurated](http://bdsartscoalition.tumblr.com/pressrelease?ref=hyperallergic.com) BDS Arts Coalition is to bridge the activist vein of such historic groups as the [Art Workers’ Coalition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art%5FWorkers'%5FCoalition?ref=hyperallergic.com) and the recent [endorsement of the BDS boycott movement by the American Studies Association.](https://www.google.com/search?q=American+Studies%27+Association+bds&oq=American+Studies%27+Association+bds&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.1748j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=hyperallergic.com) “We see this as a great opportunity, a great occasion to generate this discussion and to generate this attention,” McKee said.

![bdsopenletter_images](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/06/bdsopenletter_images.jpg)

Images of military technology developed at The Technion included in the open letter

Creative Time has previously raised objections from artists subscribing to the BDS movement at their 2012 Summit, from which the Egyptian media collective Mosireen [withdrew](http://hyperallergic.com/58499/artists-cancel-their-creative-time-summit-appearances-over-controversial-israeli-partnership/). This prompted other boycott participants, including the artist Josh MacPhee, to dedicate their invited speaking time to discussion of BDS and related issues.

“The uniqueness of Creative Time is how much rhetoric they deploy that is on surface political … None of this is about any individual in Creative Time doing something bad, it’s potentially an opening to have a much bigger conversation … they should be able to recognize that’s a good thing, even if on the surface it looks like they’ve done something quote-unquote bad,” MacPhee told Hyperallergic.

Nitasha Dhillon, another participant in the 2012 Summit, cited the *Living as Form* tour’s perceived violation of [Creative Time’s own commitments to transparency](http://creativetime.org/blog/2012/11/04/a-message-from-anne-pasternak/?ref=hyperallergic.com) at that time. “When I found out about the Haifa thing \[*Living as Form* at The Technion\], I was shocked because I hoped Creative Time had taken a step forward rather than three back given what happened at the \[2012\] Summit,” Dhillon, who is also a member of the BDS Arts Coalition, said.

The BDS movement, also known as a “cultural boycott,” has drawn support from a number of figures in popular culture, including the musicians Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and Brian Eno. MacPhee likened the boycott to the “direct historical precedent” of actions surrounding South African apartheid thirty years ago, noting Paul Simon’s [violation of a United Nations boycott](http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/19/paul-simon-graceland-acclaim-outrage?ref=hyperallergic.com) in the 1980s.

In March 2013 *The Nation* published [a lengthy article](http://www.thenation.com/article/173157/cornell-nyc-techs-alarming-ties-israeli-occupation?ref=hyperallergic.com) by Adam Hudson critical of Cornell University’s planned Roosevelt Island [partnership](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell%5FNYC%5FTech?ref=hyperallergic.com) with The Technion and the use of technologies developed there in operations against Palestinian civilians.

*The list of signatories as it appears in the full text of the letter, with categories specifying the two types of participating artists withdrawing, follows.*

> **Withdrawn \[from The Technion venue\] and in support:**  
> Celine Condorelli and Gavin Wade  
> Chto Delat?  
> Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency  
> Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla  
> U.S. Social Forum  
> Women on Waves  
>  
> **Artists in ‘Living as Form’ and signatories:**  
> Cemeti Art House  
> Minerva Cuevas  
> Ultra Red  
> Wendelien van Oldenborgh  
>  
> **Signatories:**  
> Adalah­NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel  
> Alexander Dwinell  
> Amin Husain  
> Andrew Hsiao  
> Andrew Ross  
> Angel Nevarez  
> Anjalika Sagar  
> Ariella Azoulay  
> Art Palestine  
> Ashok Sukumaran  
> Ayreen Anastas  
> Barrak Alzaid  
> Basel Abbas  
> Benj Gerdes  
> Blithe Riley  
> Brian Holmes  
> Brian McCarthy  
> Bronson Wood  
> Chantal Mouffe  
> Chitra Ganesh  
> Chris Hedges  
> Claire Pentecost  
> Common Notions  
> DAM  
> Daniel Tucker  
> Dario Azzellini  
> David Graeber  
> Dipti Desai  
> Doug Minkler  
> Elena Wood  
> Ethan Heitner  
> Favianna Rodriguez  
> Fawz Kabra  
> Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak  
> George Caffentzis  
> Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.)  
> Guy Mannes­Abbott  
> Hakan Topal  
> Hyla Willis  
> Invincible  
> Jakob Jakobsen  
> James Cairns  
> Jennifer Hayashida  
> Jeremy Brecher  
> Jesal Kapadia  
> Josh MacPhee  
> Judith Butler  
> Kareem Estefan  
> Khaled Hourani  
> Kodwo Eshun  
> Laura Dvorak  
> Laura Hanna  
> Laura Whitehorn  
> Lindsay Caplan  
> Lisa Duggan  
> Lucy Lippard  
> Mariam Ghani  
> Marina Berio  
> Marina Sitrin  
> Marshall Weber  
> Martha Rosler  
> Mary Patten  
> Melissa M. Forbis  
> Molly Crabapple  
> Mosireen  
> MTL Collective  
> Nadia Awad  
> Nathan Schneider  
> New Yorkers Against the Cornell­Technion Partnership  
> Nicholas Mirzoeff  
> Nicolas Lampert  
> Nitasha Dhillon  
> Noah Fischer  
> Not an Alternative  
> Occupy Theory  
> Ohal Grietzer  
> Olivia Robinson  
> Omar Joseph Nasser-Khoury  
> Paige Sarlin  
> Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel  
> Pamela Brown  
> Paula Chakravartty  
> Peggy Ahwesh  
> Praba Pilar  
> Rachel Schragis Rafeef Ziadah  
> Reem Fadda  
> Remi Kanazi  
> Renée Jabri  
> Ricardo Cortés  
> Ruanne Abou­Rahme  
> Rosalyn Deutsche  
> Ryan Wong  
> Sarah Farahat  
> Shaina Anand  
> Silvia Federici  
> Simon Leung  
> 16 Beaver Group  
> Stefan Christoff  
> The Narcicyst  
> Tidal Magazine  
> TJ Demos  
> US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel  
> US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation  
> Valerie Tevere  
> Walid Raad  
> Yates McKee

**Update, 4:19pm EDT:* Hyperallergic has confirmed that Allora & Calzadilla have withdrawn from the exhibition; the body of the article has been updated accordingly.*