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Nikita Dhawan, Adam Szymczyk, Doron Kiesel, Hortensia Völckers, Meron Mendel, and Stefan Koldehoff (from left to right): More depressed at the end than at the beginning of the session
Photo: Swen Pförtner / dpa
The thing was originally intended to represent the “internal and external balance of power” in Indonesia at the time of the Cold War, a post-colonial statement transplanted from the context to Kassel.
When observers discovered anti-Semitic caricatures on the teeming banner, »People's Justice« caused an unprecedented scandal.
It was therefore wrapped in black cloth and, as the collective Taring Padi explained, it was intended in this state to serve as a "monument to mourn the impossibility of dialogue."
By then the scandal had already picked up steam, and the term "dialogue" in connection with anti-Semitism was not enough to calm people's minds.
The thing should be gone now.
The discursive smoothing of waves
Most recently there was still empty scaffolding at Friedrichplatz.
Even in this state, skeletonized in a way by the debate, perhaps as a social sculpture, it certainly meant something.
But what?
In the meantime »People's Justice« has completely disappeared.
On Wednesday evening, something took its place that had surprisingly been canceled in the run-up to the Documenta – a panel discussion.
Not, as originally planned and then cancelled, a series of talks on "The role of art and artistic freedom in the face of growing anti-Semitism, racism and increasing Islamophobia".
But a panel discussion on »Anti-Semitism in Art«.
Point.
The "Anne Frank Education Center" and the "documenta and Museum Fridericianum GmbH" had invited to the discursive smoothing of the waves.
The guests were all experts with long lists of references and a great deal of knowledge – albeit, as it turned out, of different things.
Rarely has there been so much discussion at such a high level as at this event.
There was a visibly committed Prof. Dr.
Nikita Dhawan, Professor of Political Theory and History of Ideas at TU Dresden, as a representative of postcolonialism.
There was a visibly bored Adam Szymczyk, freelance curator and artistic director of the 2017 documenta.
There was Prof. Dr.
Doron Kiesel, scientific director of the education department of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, alongside Prof. Dr.
Meron Mendel, Director of the »Anne Frank Educational Center«.
Hortensia Völckers, artistic director and board member of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, was also there and said bluntly: »I was asked why I was doing this to myself at all.« Why is she doing it?
Maybe because she is responsible?
No, because she would like to "get out of accusation mode and into a healing process."
Angela Dorn is also responsible for the disaster.
The Minister for Science and Art in Hesse - somehow at least politically responsible - wants to talk "about crossing borders", about "how it could come about", and otherwise "listen carefully today, I also want to learn for myself".
Director General Angela Schormann, who is sitting in the audience, and a representative of the Ruangrupa curatorial group, who comes on stage for a short statement, also want that: “We are here to learn, to listen.”
It's a therapy session on thin ice.
In the course of the 90 minutes, Dhawan and Szymczyk in particular bring up a whole series of intimidating informants.
They are based on clever statements by Franz Kafka, Theodor W. Adorno, Samuel Beckett, Immanuel Kant, Jürgen Habermas, Frantz Fanon, WEB Du Bois, Edward W. Said and again Adorno quoting Kafka.
Ruangrupa invited their buddies, and those buddies invited others
With a view to the debate, Meron Mendel simply states: »What we are actually paying for here is that we have not been able to enter into a dialogue with each other since January.« And Doron Kiesel would like to know why »for the first time no invitation to Jewish or Israeli Artists«.
Maybe because Ruangrupa invited their buddies and these buddies are other buddies and so on – and there are no Jews in this bubble?
There is no answer to that.
Instead, Szymczyk regrets "this aggressive tension" in the discussion, which is "just noticeable in Germany."
As a way out, he proposes "multidirectional memory" and quotes Michel Foucault.
One problem is “the German culture of remembrance”.
It must "start a debate about a different memory" and is "sad that it begins so brutally".
Kiesel sees it differently, completely differently: »I don't think that his dialogue, a conversation, is still necessary here«.
You have to »make it clear« what »actually happened« with the exhibition of the picture – and other works.
They are depictions that “Goebbels or Eichmann would have been happy about”.
Given Germany's history, Kiesel has its problems with the multidirectionality demanded by Szymczyk.
"Understanding is suggested for representatives of the global South who have not dealt with this story".
And, as Kiesel continues: »Anyone who opens here in Germany
has
to deal with this story«.
Mendel says it more diplomatically and with rhetorical finesse.
If the speaking position and the cultural context are so important to post-colonialism, from which he has »learned a lot«, then the context in Kassel is: Germany.
Nikita Dhawan considers these accusations against postcolonial discourse to be "too sweeping" and asks himself: "Who benefits from the demonization and stigmatization of postcolonialism as anti-Semitic?".
That is probably "an ideological maneuver" to discredit everything postcolonial.
Of course, she also bases her teaching on Jewish experiences with totalitarianism.
Hannah Arendt!
Hortensia Völckers from the Federal Cultural Foundation – somehow at least structurally responsible – declares itself not responsible.
It is impossible for a supervisory board to control everything »that is hung up and danced somewhere«.
Otherwise, artistic freedom is in danger, because "without the autonomy of the institutions, we won't get along."
Kiesel, more depressed at the end than at the beginning of the session, would generally like to interrupt the "dialogue situation" because it has been proven pointless.
It's not about Jewish sensitivities, but the constitution of society as a whole.
If the scandal, the continued effect of anti-Semitic imagery this time in the dialect of the "Global South", remains without consequences, i.e. if those responsible - Kiesel explicitly names Dorn and Roth - "do not deal with it responsibly, then we have all lost".
If there is a »monument to mourn the impossibility of dialogue«, then it was this evening.
At peak times, the talk broadcast on YouTube was watched by just under 600 viewers.