Status: 10/10/2022 5:02 p.m
After the documenta, which was overshadowed by accusations of anti-Semitism, two members of the Ruangrupa curator collective took up guest professorships at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. The Jewish community and Hamburg’s anti-Semitism commissioner criticize the sharp.
The University of Fine Arts in Hamburg (HfBK) confirmed on Friday in response to a request from the German Press Agency that the two Ruangrupa members Reza Afisina and Iswanto Hartono will take up a guest professorship in Hamburg. According to a spokeswoman for the university, the application was made in January – i.e. before the start of the documenta.
Sharp criticism from the Jewish community
The guest professorship provoked sharp reactions from both the Hamburg Senate and the city’s Jewish community. The Jewish community, for example, calls the event a “disgrace for Hamburg” and Hamburg’s anti-Semitism commissioner Stefan Hensel also finds clear words: “I think it’s time for a fundamental debate to be held about how the cultural sector in Hamburg should adopt its attitude towards Israel-related issues anti-Semitism and to the Jewish community as a whole.” According to Hensel, what is happening at the HfbK in Hamburg is shocking.
Anti-Semitism allegations against Ruangrupa
The curator collective of this year’s documenta, Ruangrupa, is accused, among other things, of being close to the BDS movement. Shortly after the documenta opened in mid-June, a work with anti-Semitic imagery was discovered and dismantled. Even after that, other works with anti-Jewish stereotypes were discovered.
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Senate has no influence on guest professorships at universities
Science Senator Katharina Fegebank also spoke up. A statement by the Senate Press Office states that the Hamburg universities are autonomous in the appointment of their guest professorships, and that this is covered by academic freedom. Universities in particular should be places for critical discussion. But academic freedom can and should never be a license for anti-Semitic ideas.
Anke Frieling from the CDU says that the university should have pulled the ripcord in the summer and unloaded the two Ruangrupa representatives. The freedom of art never covers anti-Semitism.
Protest by the German-Israeli Society
The German-Israeli Society announced that its President, Volker Beck, had sent a letter to the relevant departments in the Federal Foreign Office protesting the awarding of the visiting professorship to Hartono and Afisina. In it, Beck wrote of a “fatal signal for German foreign cultural policy and the commitment to Israel’s security and existence in the coalition agreement: ‘For us, Israel’s security is a matter of state.'” The decision also contradicts the decision of the German Bundestag on the anti-Israel boycott movement BDS. In it, the Bundestag condemned calls for a boycott against Israel.
Afisina and Hartono have other guest professorships in Kassel
Afisina and Hartono also share a guest professorship at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, a spokesman confirmed. They were already working there in the 2022 summer semester and will continue their commitment in the coming winter semester. The university said that curators of the documenta traditionally take over events.
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