VENICE – The curator of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale on Thursday condemned Italy’s denial of visas to three Ghanaian men who had worked with her on the main exhibition to give a voice to Africans and the African diaspora.
Lesley Lokko, a Scottish-Ghanaian national who is the first African woman to curate the Architecture Biennale, told a press conference that the Italian embassy in Ghana had “expressed reasonable doubts” about the applicants’ intention to leave Italy after the visa expired.
However, she said the embassy did not provide a rationale for its decision.
“For almost the first time in my life, I’m at a loss for words,” she said.
The biennial, which opens on Saturday, presents participants from Africa or the African diaspora under the title “The Laboratory of the Future” and deals with the topics of decolonization and decarbonization.
Lokko said it is not the first time she has been refused entry by Western countries.
“It happened to my family. It happened to my friends. It happened to collaborators. “I think everyone in the Global South understands this story all too well,” she said.
While the refusal made headlines, she added: “This is not a new story. It’s an old and well-known story.
She read from a press release from the embassy in Ghana, which said she was “at the forefront of policies to promote Africa’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage.”
She replied: “It’s not in the foreground of politics. That’s his ugly butt.”
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