On 21 November 2023, the board of the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie announced the immediate cancellation of its fourth edition, scheduled for March 2024 across three German cities: Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg. The decision, taken in consultation with the mayors of cultural affairs from each city and main sponsor BASF, followed weeks of tension over social media posts by Shahidul Alam, one of three Bangladeshi curators appointed to lead the biennale. It marked a rare instance of an entire international photography festival being scrapped over a curatorial controversy.
The Curators and Their Vision
Alam, a Time Magazine Person of the Year 2018, was named alongside fellow Bangladeshi photographers Munem Wasif and Tanzim Wahab to curate the 2024 edition. The trio spent 18 months developing the theme Listening to Disquiet, inviting visitors “to listen, and thus encounter each other, with empathy.” They assembled 44 artists, six partner organisations, and three advisors: Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh of the Arab Image Foundation, Tanvi Mishra, formerly of The Caravan in New Delhi, and N’Gone Fall, former editorial director of Revue Noir. The work was complete. Contracts were signed. Venues secured. Then the posts appeared.
What Alam Posted
The controversy centred on Alam’s Facebook activity after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023. The biennale’s press release stated the posts included “an uncommented interview by Shahidul Alam with the Palestinian ambassador to Bangladesh, a comparison of the current war with the Holocaust, and accusations of genocide by the state of Israel against the Palestinian population in Gaza.” The board concluded these had “given a platform to content that can be read as anti-Semitic.” Despite discussions to sensitise the curators to “Germany’s special historical responsibility for the State of Israel and its right to exist,” the board found Alam had not “assumed any responsibility in his public function.” It offered Wasif and Wahab the chance to continue without Alam. Both declined.
The Organisers’ Position
Director Yasmin Meinicke and the board framed the cancellation as a matter of institutional trust, citing the “severely damaged” relationship with the three host cities. Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg each emphasised Germany’s postwar obligation to Israel’s right to exist. BASF endorsed the decision. In Germany, where Holocaust remembrance forms the bedrock of civic identity, the line between political critique and what authorities deem anti-Semitic expression carries institutional weight that differs sharply from other Western democracies.
The Curators Respond
On 23 November, Alam, Wasif, and Wahab expressed dismay at the “unilateral” cancellation taken “in consultation with German state authorities.” They learned of it only through the public press release, a breach, they argued, of their contract, which required joint agreement on all press releases. They maintained the posts were “a response to the actions of the Israeli government” and that the biennale had “incorrectly equated these to anti-Semitism.” They added: “Our acknowledgment of the history of the Palestinian cause does not, in any way, translate to us dismissing the historical persecution of the Jewish people. Such a conflation is a deliberate and dangerous misreading of our position.”
Solidarity and Division
The advisors publicly backed the curators. Eid-Sabbagh called the cancellation “disdainful scapegoating” and “outright censorship.” Alam argued that “anti-Semitism has been weaponised to quell any criticism of Israel,” citing the US Congress’s move to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. In Germany, where the issue carries particular historical gravity, the debate proved irreconcilable.
Who Is Shahidul Alam
Alam obtained a PhD in organic chemistry from Royal Holloway, University of London, before turning to photography in the early 1980s. He founded Drik Picture Library in Dhaka in 1989, the Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, and the Chobi Mela festival. His work has been shown at MoMA, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and Tate Modern. In 2018, he was detained for over 100 days after criticising the Bangladeshi government. The Life magazine editor John Morris called his book My Journey as a Witness “the most important book ever written by a photographer.”
Financial and Institutional Fallout
BASF had announced in March 2023, before the controversy, that it would end financial support after 2024. The dispute accelerated the institution’s collapse. In February 2025, the three cities confirmed the biennale would not be revived, citing the failed 2024 edition and lack of alternative funding. After 20 years of continuous operation since 2005, the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie ceased to exist. For photographers working outside the Western art-market mainstream, it had served as one of few platforms bridging the Global South and European institutional circuits.
What Remains
The episode raises questions beyond a single festival. Can a curator’s personal social media activity trigger the cancellation of an entire international exhibition? What happens to the 44 artists whose work was selected and prepared for display? The curators noted the cancellation violated “the very premise of the theme we were intending to explore.” Listening to Disquiet was conceived as an exercise in empathy across difference. Instead, it became a case study in how quickly institutional trust, once fractured, can dismantle two decades of cultural infrastructure. For related coverage, see our analysis of Tracey Emin’s appointment to the British Museum board and the Venice Biennale’s contested 2026 edition.
