Adjusted Trajectory: Weekly News Roundup

On August 17, the Manchester University-run Whitworth Art Gallery reneged on an earlier decision to pull a statement in support of Palestine from the collective Forensic Architecture’s exhibition “Cloud Studies” (2021). Initially, the statement was removed following a meeting between the university’s vice president Nalin Thakkar and Israeli advocacy group United Kingdom Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). Upon hearing of the removal, Forensic Architecture called for the exhibition to be withdrawn “with immediate effect.” However, Whitworth director Alistair Hudson has since attempted a compromise, announcing that the gallery would not only display the statement in its entirety, but also include a “space which gives voice to different perspectives on the issues raised by the exhibition and help contextualize them.” The statement, which originally hung by the exhibition’s entrance, read “Forensic Architecture Stands with Palestine” before detailing the “ethnic cleansing” that Palestinians are subjected to by “Israeli police and settlers,” prompting UKLFI to raise concerns about it being “one-sided,” and “falsely conflat[ing] Israelis and white supremacists.” Whitworth will undertake a review of its governance around approving new artistic content for the gallery.

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