Khaled Sabsabi, the Lebanese-Australian visual artist whose appointment as Australia’s representative to the 2025 Venice Biennale faced initial cancellation before being reinstated, will headline a major solo exhibition at the 2027 Adelaide Festival. The festival director, Matthew Lutton, announced a comprehensive 17-day program on Tuesday, highlighting Sabsabi’s new work, *Solitude*, which will make its Australian debut at Adelaide’s Samstag Museum of Art.
Lutton described the exhibition as an expansion of the installation originally prepared for the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, focusing on themes of spirituality and community. According to the festival’s press release, *Solitude* encompasses moving images, paintings, drawings, and installations. The work aims to examine the concept of collective identity within contemporary society while interrogating ideologies and identity politics in an era saturated with imagery. Lutton declined to speculate on specifics regarding the exhibition’s critique of identity politics.
Sabsabi’s association with the Venice Biennale was initially jeopardized after Creative Australia, the federal arts funding body, withdrew its support following parliamentary concerns about two of his previous works. One was *You*, a portrait of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, initially described by Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art as “suggestive of a divine illumination.” The other, *Thank You Very Much*, included video footage of the 9/11 attacks juxtaposed with former U.S. President George W. Bush. Following an inquiry and strong advocacy from the arts community, Sabsabi and his curator, Michael Dagostino, were reinstated.
The Adelaide Festival’s program will also feature a 90th birthday tribute concert dedicated to acclaimed composer Philip Glass, a performance by a Latvian choir presenting folk, pop, and classical compositions, and a Brazilian theatre piece that satirizes the archetype of the artistic male genius.
In addition, the festival will present a production of Franz Kafka’s *The Trial*, directed by expatriate Barrie Kosky and performed by the Berliner Ensemble. Lutton highlighted Kosky’s approach to the play, which combines themes of Jewish spirituality with elements of vaudeville and tap dancing, infusing the work with humor and mischief rather than the traditional solemnity.
Acclaimed actors Richard Roxburgh and Heather Mitchell will star in an updated version of *Oedipus* set during an election night. This production, which has previously toured the West End and Broadway, is scheduled for performances in Adelaide and at the Sydney Theatre Company. Lutton expressed a desire to maintain the model of recreating internationally celebrated shows with Australian casts for local presentations.
Reflecting on his initial season as festival director in 2026, Lutton described it as a “baptism of fire” due to the fallout from the cancellation of the Adelaide Writers Week. The event was called off after the disinvitation of Palestinian-Australian author and activist Randa Abdel-Fattah, whose prior statements on Zionism stirred cultural sensitivities in the wake of the Bondi Beach mass shooting. The controversy prompted boycotts from numerous invited authors, leading to the event’s cancellation and the resignation of its director, Louise Adler, and the festival’s board.