ALast Saturday evening, on the sidelines of the ballet premiere of “Faith – Love – Hope” in the Hanover Opera House, a disgusting incident occurred. During the break after the first piece, the head choreographer and director of the Staatsballett Hannover, Marco Goecke, attacked our dance critic Wiebke Hüster first verbally and then physically. In the foyer of the opera house, fifty-year-old Goecke angrily stood in the way of our unsuspecting critic – who he had never known personally before – to ask what she was doing in the premiere.
Apparently provoked by her review of his The Hague ballet evening “In the Dutch Mountains”, he initially threatened her with being “banned from the house” and accused her of being responsible for canceling subscriptions in Hanover. Getting more and more upset, Goecke finally got physical: He pulled out a paper bag with animal feces and smacked the face of our dance critic with the contents. After that, he was able to go his own way unhindered through the crowded foyer.
Police investigations into this outrageous incident are ongoing and criminal charges have been filed immediately. But we, the feuilleton of this newspaper, also consider the humiliating act to be an attempt to intimidate our free, critical view of art, in addition to the offense of bodily harm. Goecke’s crossing of borders reveals the disturbed relationship between an artist and criticism.
Carefree ostracism of art criticism
We take the deliberate degradation and humiliation that results from the prepared excrement attack very seriously. It bears witness to the fatal self-image of a personality in a highly subsidized management position, who believes that he is above all critical judgment and, in case of doubt, that he can use force to enforce his rights. In times when sensitivity and mindfulness are proclaimed at all levels in the art world, this is a particular perfidy.
The incident redeems in a frighteningly physical way what is apparently often thought and said about criticism and critics in art circles. In October 2021, the director of the Hamburger Schauspielhaus Karin Beier told Deutschlandradio what she thinks of criticism and reviews in general: They are “shit on the sleeve of art”.
In September 2022, the actor Benny Claessens verbally abused an unwelcome critic as mentally disturbed and threatened in a mafia tone: “Your time is over, darling.”
And even high-ranking officials in the independent scene, who are courted by cultural policymakers, such as Matthias Lilienthal and Amelie Deuflhard, carelessly ostracize the criticism as obsolete and regressive.
An inadequate explanation
All this careless talk creates a climate of disrespect or even hatred. Last Saturday evening showed in a frightening way what can happen in such a climate.
The director of the Hanover Opera, Laura Berman, told this newspaper that the Hanover State Opera was “shocked” by the incident and would now “review the consequences under labor law against ballet director Marco Goecke”.
Frank Rieger, state chairman of the German Association of Journalists in Lower Saxony, called for a clearer reaction: “The State Opera’s explanation of the incident is completely inadequate, because the attack on the journalist from the FAZ is also an attack on press freedom.”
We think so too.
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