The documenta has a tangible anti-Semitism scandal. After months of fending off debates and protestations that there is no anti-Semitism anywhere, Ruangrupa and the documenta are facing a moderate heap of shards. That could have been avoided.
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The banner of Taring Padi – and the consequences
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This documenta will be remembered as an anti-Semitism documenta or “art fair of shame” (picture), but it has only just begun. For months, the documenta management and the Indonesian curator collective Ruangrupa had presented allegations of anti-Semitism as unfounded – only to have a tangible scandal on their cheeks right on the opening weekend. How could that happen?
Sonja Sweet
Editors at hessenschau.de
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All the rhetoric of the past few months to get the debate over allegations of anti-Semitism under control has been in vain: a picture by the Indonesian collective Taring Padi shows a man with a crooked nose wearing a hat with SS runes; and pig-faced soldiers wearing a kerchief with a Star of David on it. The picture in the middle of the central Friedrichsplatz was completely covered with black fabric panels after loud protests on Monday evening.
Memorial to all critics
A memorial for all those who previously had fears – such as the Central Council of Jews: Unfortunately, they were confirmed. One would have wished for the more than 1,500 participating artists of this documenta that the allegations of anti-Semitism would not come true and that the world would look at the art and issues of the Global South. That would have been the responsibility of the documenta management. Instead, it is now questionable whether the documenta can still recover from the accusation of anti-Semitism in public perception.
Taring Padi defended in a press release Monday that the image was in no way anti-Semitic but “culture-specifically related to our own experiences.” Indonesia is a majority Muslim country and traditionally pro-Palestinian. But precisely because anti-Semitic stereotypes and images can be found in “culture-specific experiences” around the world, they must be questioned. The Germans also have a lot to do when it comes to anti-Semitism.
The picture is now a “monument to mourning the impossibility of dialogue,” Taring Padi wrote on Monday. But that’s not exactly what it is, but the end of warnings and discussions that didn’t bear fruit: the claim that dialogue was impossible in the face of anti-Semitism allegations only shifts the blame further onto the supposedly irreconcilable others.
Allegation of sedition
The problem with Taring Padi is that the depictions of Jews shown are not an invitation to discussion, but may even be relevant under criminal law in Germany – even if the picture was taken 20 years ago for a protest in Indonesia. Green politician Volker Beck, President of the German-Israeli Society (DIG), has filed a complaint for incitement to hatred. And since images cannot be punished, only people, the documenta could at least have protected its artists in advance so that they did not get into legal difficulties.
Instead, the documenta withdraws from its responsibility: no art is checked in advance, it said on Monday. A court could now take over the task and negotiate the limits of artistic freedom.
No well-being problem
Anti-Semitism is not an uncomfortable opinion or an artistic license, but a problem and, if in doubt, a crime. It’s not about censoring art, it’s about not publicly defaming or belittling anyone.
That’s why it’s more than clumsy that the general director of the documenta, Sabine Schormann, regretted that “feelings were hurt” after the exciting picture was wrapped. As if anti-Semitism were a mental health problem for a few Jews in Germany. Similarly powerless, it is now said that “expertise” will now be obtained – why only now and for what actually?
Instead of waging a kind of defensive battle against allegations of anti-Semitism for months, the documenta would have done well to consider a strategy: to deal with these topics in the spirit of “lumbung” – exchange and sharing. And Ruangrupa could have chosen not to condone such depictions of Jews – any more than they would have with racist art.
Steinmeier’s rebuke becomes a prophecy
When Federal President Steinmeier opened the documenta on Saturday with the sentence that for weeks he had not been sure whether he would come at all, he made clear the ice coldness with which politicians look at the behavior of the documenta. You could see a federal president who was clearly pissed off and didn’t hold back from reading the riot act to Ruangrupa and the documenta management in front of the assembled press. He explained that the German state also sees criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism.
In general, Steinmeier’s speech gave the impression that the documenta was corroded with anti-Semitism. This inspired the Bild newspaper to write the headline “Art Fair of Shame” and left Ruangrupa and the documenta management contrite.
At this point in time, however, Steinmeier’s accusation was still a controversial thesis and the reputation of the documenta had not yet been ruined: the images critical of Israel by an artist from the Gaza Strip, the “Guarnica-Gaza” series and that various artists and curators had called for the signed a boycott of Israel. At first, many saw no anti-Semitism in it.
The picture in the middle of Friedrichsplatz only attracted attention a day later. By then it was too late for the documenta to stop the scandal. Steinmeier’s rebuke had become a prophecy. That should not have happened.
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