documenta scandal: artist from Wolfratshausen says: "We can only learn from this"

Created: 06/25/2022, 09:12

By: Andrea Weber

Dismayed: Sri Maryanto in front of the cardboard figures he designed with Montessori students for the documenta in Kassel.

The Waldramer by choice had not participated in the banner of his artist collective, which caused a huge scandal.

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Sri Maryanto is a member of the artist collective that caused an anti-Semitic scandal at the documenta.

The Wolfratshauser comments on the scandal.

Wolfratshausen – With a banner installation, the artist collective “Taring Padi” caused a huge scandal at the “documenta fifteen” on Kassel's Friedrichsplatz on Tuesday.

The reason: visitors had recognized anti-Semitic motifs in the picture.

The consequences are blatant: although the work of art has now been removed, Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to stay away from the renowned exhibition.

Politicians and the Central Council of Jews in Germany are also demanding personnel consequences from the organizer.

With the picture taken down, the issue of anti-Semitism and the proximity of the documenta to the anti-Semitic Israel boycott movement BDS is not over, said Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council.

documenta scandal: artist from Wolfratshausen says: "We can only learn from this"

Sri Maryanto, Indonesian and Waldramer by choice, is part of the collective in the second generation (we reported).

In workshops with children from the Biberkor Montessori School and other artists, he designed some of the approximately 1,000 cardboard figures that were on display at the documenta together with the wall-sized, scandalous banner installation.

The cardboard figures are based on the traditional Indonesian shadow figures.

With its works, the collective "Taring Padi" has been campaigning for human rights, environmental protection and equality for years.

Anti-Semitism allegations against documenta exhibitors - Waldramer is dismayed

Speaking to our newspaper, Sri Maryanto expressed his dismay.

The Waldramer himself did not work on the large-format banner.

It was created in 2002 and first shown at the South Australia Art Festival in Adelaide.

After that, it was shown in many other places around the world and in different contexts without causing a comparable stir, says the Indonesian.

According to media reports, many visitors to Kassel now recognized anti-Semitic motifs on the banner.

Among other things, a soldier with a pig's face is shown wearing a scarf with a Star of David and a helmet with the inscription "Mossad" - the name of the Israeli foreign intelligence service.

Another figure also met with great horror: She wears "Pejes", the sidelocks of the traditional Jews,

Documenta scandal: "The details were looked at with a magnifying glass"

Sri Maryanto is "very saddened" by the scandal.

We can only learn from this how quickly misunderstandings arise.” In his opinion, “a magnifying glass was used to look at details without grasping the entirety of the presentation”.

Because on the banner, Maryanto continues, many dictators, military power structures and secret services such as the Soviet KGB and the US CIA are depicted as exaggerated beings - and on the other side people who courageously oppose them.

Maryanto's colleagues from "Taring Padi" have meanwhile also commented: The banner installation "People's Justice" is "part of a campaign against militarism and violence that we experienced during the 32-year military dictatorship of Suharto in Indonesia and whose legacy is still alive today affects,” the statement said.

The depiction of military figures is an expression of these experiences.

It goes on to say: "We apologize for the injuries caused in this context."

Wolfratshauser exhibits at documenta - is part of the criticized collective

On Tuesday evening, the entire art installation, including the cardboard figures that Maryanto had worked on, was completely dismantled.

"The curators' decision that no Jewish artists or artists from Israel were invited to one of the most important art exhibitions in the world was the beginning of a series of wrong decisions, so that the situation that has now occurred has been announced for weeks and has become increasingly critical," said Felix Klein, Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Anti-Semitism, told the German Press Agency.

"Now at the latest it is urgently necessary that dialogue is finally sought, including with the Central Council of Jews."