Wave of criticism against the prestigious contest for inviting artists with anti-Jewish works
The “Documenta”, the prestigious 100-day contemporary art contest held in the German town of Kassel every five years, already has its scandal. The large mural on a gigantic canvas entitled “People’s Justice”, -popular justice-, which featured the show, woke up this Tuesday covered with a black cloth that completely hides it from visitors to the town in central Germany. The work of the Indonesian artist collective Taring Padi, it had provoked a huge wave of criticism for its anti-Semitic nature, including those from the International Auschwitz Committee, the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Two of the figures painted on the canvas were highly offensive. That of a pig-faced riot policeman, a Star of David on his neckerchief and the word “Mossad” on his helmet, referring to Israel’s intelligence services, and that of a demon with vampire eyes and teeth , with the classic ringlets of Orthodox Jews, a sharp tongue and a bowler hat with the runes of the SS, Adolf Hitler’s Praetorian Guard.
The direction of the contest inaugurated the weekend and the collective Taring Padi finally decided to hide the mural exposed in the Friedrichplatz of Kassel. After underlining their surprise at the controversy caused and assuring that their work “in no way has to do with anti-Semitism”, the Indonesian artists expressed their “sadness that some details of the mural have been misunderstood compared to its initial objective” and they apologized “for the open wounds” for their work. Previously there had been an unstoppable avalanche of criticism, including that of the German Minister of Culture, the green Claudia Roth, who recalled that “human dignity, protection against anti-Semitism, as well as against racism and all forms of xenophobia are the basis of our coexistence.
Joseph Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, demanded consequences from those responsible for “Documenta” for “transgressing a red line”, while the president of the Israelite Cultural Community of Munich, Charlotte Knobloch was “shocked by the shameless hatred of the Jews» that shows the controversial work. No less critical was the Israeli embassy in Berlin, for which some elements of the mural recall “Goebbels propaganda” and Christoph Heubner, executive president of the International Auschwitz Committee, stressed that “the humiliating staging of 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 raise 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, had criticized the organizers of the exhibition and especially 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 am going to be honest: in the past few weeks I was not sure that I would be here today,” said the German leader in his inaugural speech, in which he warned that the country responsible for the extermination of six million Jews during World War II does not tolerate any type of anti-Semitic expression, although it does criticize the policy of the state of Israel. “But where criticism of Israel leads to questioning its existence, the limit is exceeded,” Steinmeier said at the time.
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