The Erich Schelling Architecture Foundation, located in Karlsruhe, Germany, announced on Monday that it has unanimously decided to rescind an award to British writer and artist James Bridle because of his support for boycotting Israeli cultural institutions.
The foundation hands out awards for architecture and architectural theory once every two years, and the awards have a total endowment of close to $32,000. An international jury of seven individuals picks the winner, and Bridle was set to receive the prize for architectural theory at this year’s award ceremony, set for Wednesday. The foundation praised Bridle, saying his “publications on the complex relationships between society, technology, and ecology have greatly enriched the current discourse.”
However, a day before the award ceremony, the foundation announced that it would not distribute a theory prize this year, which Bridle had won. The institution said it made its decision after discovering that Bridle co-signed an
open letter in late October, in which thousands in the literary industry pledged to boycott Israeli cultural institutions in response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The open letter was published by the online magazine
The Literary Hub and falsely accused Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid. It also claimed, without providing evidence, that Israeli cultural institutions have been “crucial in obfuscating, disguising, and artwashing the dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decades.”
(full article online)
The Erich Schelling Architecture Foundation, located in Karlsruhe, Germany, announced on Monday that it has unanimously decided to rescind an award to British writer and artist James Bridle because of his support for boycotting Israeli cultural institutions. The foundation hands out awards for...
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