Barbican defends Palestine exhibit

The Barbican has defended its exhibition of work by a Palestinian artist against claims it is “an exercise in delegitimisation”.

The controversial exhibit includes a film showing the heroine planting various porcelain that carry the DNA for future archaeologists to excavate.

In The Future They Ate From The Finest Porcelain, co-produced by Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour and Danish artist Søren Lind, is currently showing in London as part of the Into the Unknown exhibition.

The Board of Deputies’ Gillian Merron wrote to Barbican director Louise Jeffreys arguing that the film sought to “deny the historical Jewish connection to Israel”.

A Barbican spokesman said: “This video installation is set in a non-specific time and place and uses a combination of science fiction and archival imagery that slips fluidly between unknown pasts, presents, and futures. The artists’ intention is that the symbolic visual language in the film speaks of history and tradition, yet it cannot be placed in any distinct or quantifiable time period.”