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Protest against anti-Semitic exhibition at the Documenta in Kassel
Photo:
Andreas Fischer / epd
I know the scenario very well.
Someone says or does something anti-Semitic.
Then it is said that you didn't want to hurt anyone.
It wasn't all meant that way.
A misunderstanding, one is of course not anti-Semitic.
The perpetrator becomes a victim who feels cornered by all those who are upset about the matter.
First of all, it's us Jews who get upset.
The others follow suit.
If any.
It's about the Documenta and the "progressive collective" Taring Padi, responsible for the now cleared anti-Semitic work.
Taring Padi rambled that it had become "a memorial of sadness at the impossibility of dialogue at this moment."
What hubris!
The claim that this work "is perceived as offensive in this particular context in Germany" testifies either to the incredible stupidity of these "artists" or to a brazen defense strategy.
It's not about Germans or their context.
Anti-Semitism is, unfortunately, universal.
It doesn't matter where, in which country, in which culture it manifests itself.
I think the folks at Taring Padi knew exactly what they were doing, even if they don't want to admit it.
Their press release said they presented the "characters, signs, caricatures and other visual vocabulary" in a "culture-specific context related to our own experiences."
This is intended to allude to the »Global South«, a vague term that attempts to define itself solely through its contrast in experience to the »white« North or West.
more on the subject
Allegations of anti-Semitism against large banners in Kassel: This is how the art collective and Documenta justify the covering
Anyone who takes a closer look at the portrayal of the Jews in the alleged work of art quickly recognizes that the anti-Semitic stereotypes used by the artist collective from Indonesia are European.
These caricatures have been known for centuries, the teary-eyed Jew with a hooked nose and sidelocks, the Jewish pig face.
All of this, including the details, is part of the anti-Semitic European tradition.
The "other" cultural experience?
Threadbare.
Because anyone who knows the anti-Semitic caricatures in the media of the Muslim world knows where the models come from.
From Europe, of course from Der Stürmer, but also from anti-Semitic depictions in later communist systems.
Taring Padi doesn't want to know that?
Worse still are the German voices, who can no longer deny that anti-Semitism has found its way into the Documenta, but who always try to put it into perspective, including here in SPIEGEL.
Yes, the freedom of art also applies to bad art – for free.
But not for anti-Semitism.
Whether it was a work like Rainer Werner Fassbinder's play »The Garbage, the City and Death«, in which a character is titled »rich Jew«, or in the case of the Documenta: such »art« can kill.
she killed
Many got upset when in 1985 the Jewish community in Frankfurt occupied the stage of the Frankfurter Schauspiel to prevent the world premiere of Fassbinder's play.
People were outraged by the alleged censorship that the play should be shown in order to initiate a "debate".
Should a debate be started again?
About what?
That anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism?
No, I don't want to see such anti-Semitic stereotypes in public space.
You are jointly responsible for the fact that hundreds of people in my family were murdered and my parents were put in concentration camps.
It is no news that before every mass murder, every annihilation, comes the dehumanization of the supposed enemy.
Words and images precede the action, they prepare it, they get people in the mood for what is to come.
It really doesn't matter whether it's "good" or "bad" art.
Apparently liberal demands for artistic freedom simply paternalistically disregard my experience of the persecution and oppression of Jews.
Someone belonging to mainstream society should be cautious about their demands, preferring to cater to the sensibilities of those who are directly exposed to such aggression.
And know its consequences.
What happened to the picture at the Documenta is typical of how anti-Semitism is dealt with in Germany: half-hearted, indecisive, somehow funny, embarrassing.
First the picture is covered up, which art lovers could interpret as a metaphor for “hidden anti-Semitism” in society.
Then the picture is finally taken down.
But not out of conviction, but under pressure.
Not only Taring Padi didn't understand anything, neither did those responsible for the Documenta.
No thinking, nothing learned.
And next time it will be the same again.
This is how you make anti-Semitism acceptable, from scandal to scandal.
And eventually it becomes normal.