Wave of criticism on the prestigious competition for inviting artists with anti-Jewish works
The ‘Documenta’, the prestigious 100-day contemporary art competition held every five years in Kassel, Germany, has already known its scandal. The large mural on a giant canvas titled “People’s Justice,” -People’s Justice-, which featured the show, woke up this Tuesday to a black cloth completely hiding it from visitors to the city in central Germany. German Culture Minister Claudia Roth announced hours later that the work will finally be completely withdrawn because it is anti-Semitic. “Anti-Semitism should have no place in this art exhibition, nor in our society. The same goes for racism and all forms of xenophobia. There are clear limits to the freedom of art,” Roth said.
The work of the Indonesian artist collective Taring Padi, the mural, had provoked a huge wave of criticism for its anti-Semitic nature, including from the International Auschwitz Committee, the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Two of the figures painted on the canvas were very offensive. That of a riot police officer with a pig face, a Star of David on his neckerchief and the word “Mossad” on his helmet, referring to Israeli intelligence, and that of a demon with vampire eyes and teeth, with the classic locks of Orthodox Jews, a sharp tongue and a bowler hat with the runes of the SS, the Praetorian Guard of Adolf Hitler.
The direction of the competition started over the weekend and the collective Taring Padi finally decided to hide the mural on Kassel’s Friedrichplatz. After underscoring their surprise at the controversy caused and assuring that their work “has nothing to do with anti-Semitism in any way”, the Indonesian artists expressed their “sadness that some details of the mural have been misunderstood compared to the original purpose” and they apologized “for the open wounds” for their work. Previously there had been an unstoppable avalanche of criticism, including that from the mayor of Kassel himself, Christian Geselle, who said he was “furious and disappointed as the city and I as mayor are ashamed” of “something that happened and not had to happen.”
The German head of culture also demanded greater consequences than withdrawing the work. “We need to find out how that mural with anti-Semitic images got there. In addition, I require those responsible for the ‘Documenta’ and the curators of the exhibition to ensure and verify that other clearly anti-Semitic works will not be exhibited in the exhibition. Joseph Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, also demanded repercussions from those responsible for “Documenta” for “violating a red line”, while the president of the Munich Israeli Cultural Community, Charlotte Knobloch “was shocked.” by the blatant hatred of the Jews» that the controversial work shows No less critical was the Israeli embassy in Berlin, for which some elements of the mural recall “Goebbels propaganda” and Christoph Heubner, executive chairman of the International Auschwitz Committee , stressed that “the degrading staging of the Jewish people is full of anti-Semitic platitudes. , well known to Holocaust survivors.”
Meron Mendel, director of the Anne Frank Museum, was the first to sound the alarm and demand the withdrawal of the controversial work from the 15th edition of the “Documenta”. Last Saturday and during the opening of the exhibition, the Federal President of Germany, Frank Walter Steinmeier, criticized the organizers of the exhibition and in particular the Indonesian group “Ruangrupa”, curator of the event, for inviting artists or groups that support the cultural boycott of Israel or are clearly anti-Semitic. “I’m going to be honest: for the past few weeks I wasn’t sure if I would be here today,” the German leader said in his inaugural address, warning that the country responsible for the extermination of six million Jews during World War II does not tolerate any form of anti-Semitic expression, although it does criticize the policies of the State of Israel. “But where criticism of Israel leads to questioning its existence, the line is crossed,” Steinmeier said at the time.
Source: La Verdad
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