The press release on the cancellation of the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2024 can be found here.

The planned fourth Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg,
which was to have opened in March 2024, has been cancelled. This sad and serious decision was made after intensive consultation between the Biennale's Board and the responsible cultural mayors of the three organising cities and in agreement with BASF SE, the longstanding main sponsor. The course of several discussions with the curators of the Biennale 2024 Shahidul Alam, Tanzim Wahab and Munem Wasif, which were held after 7 October and before the final cancellation on 21 November 2023 by the Board and the management of the Biennale on site in Mannheim and digitally, led to this far-reaching decision. A detailed explanation for the end of the collaboration with the curators can be found in the press release of 21 November 2023.

7 October 2023 changed the world with the cruel terrorist attacks by Hamas on civilians in Israel. The consequences are catastrophic. We would like to take this opportunity to emphasise that at no point in the decision-making process was the trustees' solidarity with the Palestinian civilian population questioned or criticised. It was specifically a matter of anti-Semitic content and messages that went beyond this, which one of the three curators gave a platform to and which made a previously trusting collaboration impossible.

The Biennale condemns all forms of anti-Semitism, racism, hatred and xenophobia and stands for the commitment and fight for human rights that knows no borders, nations or religious communities.

In the coming period, we will do everything in our power to resume the dialogue with artists, curators, audiences and partners and to maintain the Biennale as an important international platform for the exchange of ideas about contemporary photography and its impact in the long term.