Protesters gathered outside Tate Britain last night, where artist Jasleen Kaur was named the 2024 Turner Prize winner. Around 150 pro-Palestine and Lebanon demonstrators and 50 counter-protesters were separated by a heavy police presence to allow award ceremony guests into the building. Kaur briefly joined the pro-Palestine rally before the ceremony, where she delivered a powerful acceptance speech calling for a Gaza ceasefire and institutional divestment from ties to Israel.
Though peaceful, the protest underscored the deepening division and concerns around censorship in the art world as Israel’s war in Gaza continues into a second year.
Organized by various activist groups, principally Artists For Palestine U.K. and Artists and Culture Workers LDN, the pro-Palestine protest began at around 6 p.m. local time. The rally featured a bill of speakers who addressed the crowd, including Barnaby Raine, a London-born PhD student at Columbia University who is a prominent organizer of Jewish solidarity with Palestine, the art critic Zarina Muhammad of The White Pube, and the artist and activist Zita Holbourne. The occasion also marked the U.K. digital launch of the Gaza Biennale, which saw artworks by Gazan artists projected onto the sides of the Tate Britain building.
One of the rally’s speakers was a spokesperson for Arts and Culture Alliance Berlin, who declared “silence is not an option.” She referred to recent instances of “state repression and injustice” in Germany’s cultural sector, echoing concerns voiced by Nan Goldin at the opening of her exhibition at Neue Nationalgalerie last month. “Art and culture is a force of resistance not instruments of repression,” she proclaimed to a chorus of cheers, later announcing: “Berlin is dead!”
The smaller group of counter protestors waved Israeli flags and Union Jacks and held up signs reading “don’t let Hamas kidnap our culture.” They also raised a large sign declaring “stop the lies: there is no genocide in Gaza.” The group blasted loud pop songs in an attempt to drown out the pro-Palestine group, at one time playing Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust.
A small counter protest by pro-Israel demonstrators on December 3, 2024 at Tate Britain in London, England. Photo: Guy Smallman/Getty Images.
“We want to make sure Tate knows that not everyone agrees with severing ties with donors who have connections with Israel,” said Mark Birbeck of activist group Our Fight, one of the organizers of the counter-protest.
Though this group had no official speakers, one member with a megaphone addressed the Palestine supporters. “Tell us you hate us because we are Jews, that’s exactly what you say every time you hide behind this [inaudbile],” he said. “Shame on you Jew-haters!”
Inside the museum, champagne flowed freely and the mood was considerably more celebratory but there were clear signs of solidarity with the pro-Palestine protestors in the cold outside. Kaur was notably dressed in the colors of the Palestinian flag and a scarf bearing the word “DIVEST.” Her table of colleagues and friends wore traditional Palestinian keffiyeh. Another attendee wore a pink sign on their back reading “no one is free until everyone is.”
When Kaur was announced as this year’s Turner Prize winner, she took to the stage to address the U.K. via a live broadcast on the BBC. “I want to echo calls of protestors outside,” she said, as supporters in the room cheered.
“I’ve been wondering why artists are required to dream up liberation in the gallery but when that dream meets life we are shut down,” Kaur continued. “I want the separation between the expression of politics in the gallery and the practice of politics in life to disappear. I want the institutions to understand that if you want us inside you need to listen to us outside.” She concluded by calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Protestors outside of Tate Britain on December 3, 2024. Photo: Vivienne Chow.
Later, Kaur said she had felt compelled to speak “because I wanted to use my voice in this space. It’s not visible but I’m here and I’ve got the mic and I’m visible.” Her speech was widely shared online and praised as “incredible” on Instagram by the Turner Prize’s curator Linsey Young, who left Tate in October after eight years.
In her speech, Kaur also referred to an open letter published in late November and signed by over 1,200 artists and art workers. It calls on Tate to sever ties with two of its funding partners, Outset Contemporary Art Fund and Zabludowicz Art Trust, over links both organizations have to Israel. “We believe Tate has a profound moral duty, if not a legal one, to divest from its affiliations with the Israeli state,” the letter states.
Kaur is one of the letter’s signatories, as are Pio Abad and Claudette Johnson, two of the three runner-ups for this year’s Turner Prize. Previous winners Jesse Darling, Charlie Prodger, Helen Cammock, and Lawrence Abu Hamdan also signed, as did artists Larry Achiampong, Tai Shani, Zineb Sedira, Sophia al-Maria, Rene Matić, Cécile B. Evans, Dala Nasser, Eddie Peake, Hannah Black, and Jumana Manna.
The open letter compared Tate’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which prompted it to cut ties with major donors Viktor Vekselberg and Petr Aven, with Tate’s decision to “remain silent on Israel’s total destruction of Gaza and its escalations in the West Bank and Lebanon.” It called on leaders at Tate “to take a clear stance against the artwashing of genocide and apartheid,” citing the U.N. Special Committee’s recent findings that “Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide.”
Since the war broke out on October 7, 2023, 1,139 Israelis have been killed by Hamas. Recent figures say at least 44,439 Gazans have been killed, including 17,492 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Speaking out against the violence “should not risk an artist’s career or safety,” Kaur said in her speech before concluding with “free Palestine.”
Since the war broke out, protests, boycotts, cancelations, and withdrawals have been made at major events and venues across the art world. Artists and art workers have claimed that some U.K. institutions have censored artworks addressing the conflict or have kept artists who have spoken openly in support of Palestine from speaking at events.
Meanwhile, last week, the prominent philanthropist Candida Gertler stepped down from Outset Contemporary Art Fund, which she co-founded in 2003, under pressure from the Strike Outset movement for institutions to divest from organizations and individuals with ties to Israel. In a statement, Gertler cited an “alarming rise in antisemitism.” In October, her name was removed from a gallery at Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art public gallery in London following several months of protest actions.
Tate Britain did not respond to a request for comment about the protests at the Turner Prize event by press time.
The Turner Prize is the U.K.’s most prestigious award for contemporary art, now in its 40th year. Since the 1980s, it has spotlighted names like Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, Damien Hirst, and Steve McQueen. As the winner, Kaur will receive £25,000 ($31,500), with £10,000 ($12,500) going to each of the runner-ups. An exhibition of the nominees’ work is on view at Tate Britain until February 16, 2025.
Vivienne Chow contributed reporting.