Gabrielle Goliath: Elegy in Venice
Gabrielle Goliath presents an independent exhibition of her acclaimed long-term performance project Elegy (2015–ongoing) as a multi-channel video installation at the Chiesa di Sant’Antonin, Castello, Venice, staged during the 61st Venice Biennale.
A ritual lament of shared breath and song, Elegy is a call to mourn. Developed over more than a decade through performances staged across Johannesburg, Cape Town, São Paulo, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Basel, and beyond, the work attends to intertwined histories of imperial, colonial, and patriarchal violence. Addressing conditions that render Black, brown, feminine, and queer lives precarious, the project creates a collective space for grief, remembrance, and resistance, foregrounding mourning as an ethical and political practice.
Presented following the contested cancellation of the South African Pavilion, this independent exhibition brings together an international network of collaborators and advocates. Made possible through the support of the Bertha Foundation and realised in partnership with Ibraaz, Fondazione ICA Milano, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, and the Friends of Elegy, the presentation marks a significant moment in the ongoing life of the project.
Installed across eight monumental video monoliths within the historic church, three newly realised suites of Elegy performances respond to interconnected contexts of violence and loss, commemorating South African student Ipeleng Christine Moholane, two murdered Nama women ancestors, and Palestinian poet Heba Abunada, killed in Gaza in October 2023. Light, sound, and collective voice envelop the space, inviting visitors into a shared labour of mourning and care.
Elegy Reader
Central to the presentation is the launch of the Elegy Reader, co-produced with Ibraaz Publishing. Bringing together poetry and texts responding to histories of displacement, colonialism, and genocide, the publication gathers voices from South Africa, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Sudan, Namibia, Haiti, and beyond. A public reading will take place outside Chiesa di Sant’Antonin on Thursday, May 7, 5–7pm.
Across installation, performance, and publication, Elegy proposes mourning as a mode of relation—insisting on kinship, witness, and collective remembrance in the face of ongoing global violence.
Following Venice, Elegy will be presented in London at Ibraaz (October 2026) and in Milan at ICA Milano (January 2027).