Artist Jasleen Kaur’s acceptance speech was delivered at the Turner Prize award ceremony at Tate Britain and broadcast live on BBC News Channel, on 3rd December 2024.

‘To the artists, the poets, the parents,
the students who show me the slow and meticulous
work of organising and world building

the folk who orient their lives towards
freedom in practice

not theory

who advocate for life, not death.

Last week I heard Fred Moten say
that there’s a difference

between the expression of solidarity
and the practice of solidarity

and the practice of solidary
is something that

people will have to engage
with where they are.

From where I am now

I want to echo the calls of the protesters
outside

[Applause]

a protest made up of artists

culture workers
staff, students who I stand firmly with.

They’ve gathered to make visible
the demands of the open letter signed by

when I last checked, one thousand three hundred and ten signatories
signatories in just a week calling for you Tate
to sever ties with organisations

complicit in what the UN and ICJ

are finally getting closer to saying 
is a genocide of the Palestinian people.

This is not a radical demand.

This should not risk an artist’s career
or safety.

We’re trying to build consensus
that the ties to these organisations
are unethical.

Just as artists said with Sackler.

I’ve been wondering
why artists are required to dream up
liberation in the gallery
but when that dream meets life
we are shut down.

I want the separation
between the expression of politics
in the gallery and the practice of politics
in life to disappear.

I want the institution to understand that
if you want us inside
you need to listen to us outside.

We needed a ceasefire 
a very long time ago.

We need a proper ceasefire now
arms embargo now.  Free Palestine.’

[Applause]