An art gallery in London canceled an exhibition right before it was set to open because one of the members of the group expressed her sorrow at the Hamas massacre of October 7, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The Metamorphika studio was scheduled to host an exhibition by Pomidor, a Russian group opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the studio received multiple complaints because one of the exhibition's creators, who lives in Israel, published two posts on Instagram mourning those who were murdered on October 7 soon after the massacre.
The exhibition, titled “Even Elephants Hold Elections," was about the plight of political prisoners in Russia and the repression of the Putin government and had nothing to do with the war between Hamas and Israel.
Metamorphika stated that the reason for the cancelation of the exhibition was that the Israeli member of Pomidor had mourned the Israeli victims but had not said a word about the people who have been killed in Gaza since the outbreak of the war. The studio further stated that it is in total opposition to "Israeli Zionism."
The Israeli woman, who was identified only as Maria, told the Chronicle, "Censorship is one of the main topics of our works – and now we have been censored."
She compared the studio's decision to censor her to her grandparents' experience in having to hide the fact that they were Jewish in Communist Russia.
Metamorphika wrote in a statement on Instagram explaining the decision, “Whilst we value courage and the importance of derived work under abusive ruling, we believe that this understanding of brutality and violence shouldn't stop at one country's borders.”
“As a team we have decided not to engage with artists who stay neglect the death of over 35,000 Palestinians, widespread of famine, water contamination, spread of diseases and more,” the gallery added.