‘Art galleries must end links to Gaza genocide,’ says Turner Prize winner

Scottish artist Jasleen Kaur used her acceptance speech after winning the 2024 Turner Prize to call on art galleries to end their ties with organisations ‘complicit in what the UN are close to saying is a genocide of the Palestinian people’.

Kaur, who is of Indian Sikh heritage,… pic.twitter.com/A3KtqH5Ber

— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) December 4, 2024

Scottish Sikh artist, Jasleen Kaur, was awarded the 2024 Turner Prize last night, during which she used her acceptance speech to deliver a strong message of solidarity with Palestine.

Protesters had gathered outside London’s Tate Modern to demand the gallery sever financial ties with organisations linked to the Israeli state. Kaur, who had signed an open letter supporting the campaign last week, echoed their calls during her speech.

Wearing a scarf displaying the word DIVEST in the colours of the Palestinian flag, she reaffirmed her commitment to the cause as she accepted the prestigious award.

“I want to echo the calls of protestors outside,” she said. “They have gathered to make visible the demands in the open letter signed by – when I last checked – 1302 signatories in just a week calling for you, Tate, to sever ties with organisations complicit in what the UN and the ICJ are finally getting closer to saying is a genocide of the Palestinian people.”

“This should not risk an artist’s career or safety. We’re trying to build consensus that the ties to these organisations are unethical, just as artists did with Sackler,” she said, referencing the family linked to the opioid epidemic.

“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,” she added.

“I want the separation between the expression of politics in the gallery and the practice of politics in life to disappear. I want institutions to understand that if you want us on the inside you need to listen to us on the outside. We needed a ceasefire a very long time ago; we need a proper ceasefire now. We need an arms embargo now. Free Palestine.”

One standout piece in Jasleen Kaur’s Turner Prize-winning exhibition is a Red Ford Mk3 Escort Cabriolet XR3i, a replica of her father’s first car arriving in Scotland, draped with a massive crocheted doily, which represents the contributions of Indian migrants in Britain’s textile industry.

Her exhibition also features everyday items such as Irn Bru bottles, political leaflets and family photographs reimagined to explore themes of heritage and identity.

The Tate Jury praised Kaur’s work for its timeliness, describing it as “speaking imaginatively to how we might live together in a world increasingly marked by nationalism, division and social control.”

They also praised the thoughtful ways in which she “weaves together the personal, political and spiritual in her exhibition.”

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