Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Bosbolobosboco #4, 2004, audio sculpture, 1.1 m x 2.4 m x 2 m. Photograph: Job Janssen and Jan Adriaans, Sydney Biennale
The artists’ decision to withdraw follows a call by five artists for the Sydney Biennale to withdraw from a funding arrangement with Transfield Holdings. (Editor’s Note: the number of artists threatening boycott is now 28). The company is a shareholding in Transfield Services, which runs off-shore detention facilities for the Australian Government’s internment of asylum seekers. The artists sent an Open Letter to the Biennale board last week, after the death of an asylum seeker in custody, saying they wanted to send a message that mandatory detention of asylum seekers was ethically indefensible and in breach of human rights; and that they did want to be associated with these practices.
