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Claudia Roth: »Chain of irresponsibility«
Photo: Boris Roessler / picture alliance / dpa
Up until the unveiling of the painting »People's Justice«, Claudia Roth had been rather reassuring in the discussion about the Documenta.
The Minister of State for Culture later became more critical.
Roth now admits in an interview with the magazine Stern that perhaps she should have been "louder and clearer in the discussions leading up to the opening of the Documenta".
She was aware "that it's not enough if I say: I couldn't do more," says Roth.
"Even if it's objectively correct."
Roth calls the events in Kassel a "chain of irresponsibility where, in the end, nobody claims to have been responsible."
In a SPIEGEL interview in June, Roth opposed placing the curators – the Ruangrupa artist group from Indonesia – under general suspicion because of their origin.
Now the Greens politician warns against relativizing anti-Semitic depictions by referring to the countries of origin of the artists.
"Anti-Semitism is and will remain anti-Semitism, whether in Indonesia, in Turkey or anywhere else," says Roth.
If foreign artists were invited to a German exhibition, they would have to know »what historical responsibility means here in particular«.
Just a few weeks ago, Roth had largely stayed out of the dispute over the Documenta: "You won't raise or lower your thumb as a cultural police officer," she said in an interview with SPIEGEL.
And further: She "urged that the allegations be taken seriously, but the chairman of the supervisory board in particular felt that this was interference," says Roth.
"I couldn't do more than make suggestions." Daniel Botmann, Managing Director of the Central Council of Jews, criticized the fact that he had not felt heard by Claudia Roth during crisis talks and that he was not taken seriously.
The "Jewish General" even called for Roth's resignation.
»We regret that these pictures are not understood«
Anti-Semitism allegations against the documenta have been circulating for months.
Shortly after the opening of the exhibition, a banner with anti-Jewish motifs was discovered and taken down.
Roth emphasized that the federal government was not represented in the structures of the documenta and that all relevant decisions for this year's exhibition had already been made when she took office.
Since Tuesday, the depictions criticized for being anti-Semitic have been accompanied by a classification of the exhibiting collective in a brochure exhibited at documenta fifteen.
In it, the collective »Archives des luttes des femmes en Algérie« (»Archives of women's struggles in Algeria«) firmly rejects the allegations made.
"We regret that these images have met with a lack of understanding and have become the subject of misinterpretation by the media and visitors who think they recognize anti-Semitic depictions," writes the collective.
However, the images were not aimed at Jews as individuals or as a community, but rather criticized the Israeli army.
The drawings contained in the brochure »Présence des Femmes« show, among other things, soldiers with the Star of David on their helmets as robots with bared teeth.
After the anti-Semitism allegations against the documenta that had been circulating for months and the removal of a banner with anti-Semitic imagery, they triggered another wave of criticism of the exhibition in Kassel.
Volker Beck, President of the German-Israeli Society (DIG), then renewed his criticism of those responsible for Documenta: "Documenta fifteen is really an epochal change in the history of German post-war anti-Semitism," he said.
So far, one has reacted to anti-Semitism scandals by distancing oneself from them and anti-Semitism has been socially outlawed.
"But that's expressly not the case here."
ime/dpa