On Art and Censorship – the case of antisemitic allegations at the documenta 15 in Kassel
In this special feature for Get the Trolls Out!, freelance producer Souhail Hamsho tackles a controversial and sensitive topic. This year’s documenta, the most significant worldwide exhibition for curating contemporary art in Germany, has unfortunately been marked by antisemitism allegations that led to obscuring the contested artwork People’s Justice (2002) by the Indonesian artist collective Taring Padi. Was this the right decision? Or would this work of art have been an opportunity to raise awareness of antisemitism and the limits of art or to initiate a debate about it? How should the artistic exchange of cultural and political experiences take place without misunderstandings? How important is it to separate between artists and their works of art? These and more questions are discussed in this episode, with inputs by Madeleina Kay, artist and Social Media Campaigner for the Get The Trolls Out! project. You can listen live on Friday, December 1st at 18:45 and Saturday, December 2nd at 10:45 on Freies Radio Kassel 105,8 FM or via livestream. You can replay the podcast via the GTTO podcast pages on Anchor and Spotify.
documenta is an international exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultural Show) which took place in Kassel at that time. It was an attempt to bring Germany up to speed with modern art, which had been banished and repressed during the cultural darkness of Nazism.
The Artistic Direction of this year’s edition - documenta 15 – was assigned to ruangrupa, a collective of artists and creatives from Jakarta, Indonesia. With a ten-member core, the ruangrupa collective began as friendships among students at art schools in Jakarta and Yogyakarta during the mid-1990s. ruangrupa has built the foundation of documenta fifteen on the core values and ideas of ‘lumbung’. It is the Indonesian word for a collectively governed rice barn, where the gathered harvest is stored for the common good of the community. Understood not only as a building but also as a way of working and living together, lumbung has been operational in the lead-up to documenta fifteen in 2022, and beyond.
This year’s documenta has unfortunately been marked by antisemitism allegations that led to obscuring the contested artwork People’s Justice (2002) by the Indonesian artist collective Taring Padi. The work of art is a sprawling banner depicting, among other things, a soldier with a pig’s face wearing a scarf with a Star of David, and a helmet inscribed with ‘Mossad’. German Culture Minister Claudia Roth, who had previously in the debate advocated for ‘artistic freedom’, called on Twitter for the removal of ‘antisemitic imagery’ from documenta: ‘I’ll say it again: human dignity, protection against antisemitism, racism and misanthropy are the foundations of our coexistence and this is where artistic freedom finds its limits’.
In a documenta announcement, the organisers stated: ‘Due to a depiction of a figure in the work People’s Justice (2002) by the collective Taring Padi, which triggers antisemitic readings, the collective, together with the management of documenta and the Artistic Direction of documenta fifteen, has decided to cover up the work in question at Friedrichsplatz and to install an explanation next to the work.’ In a parallel statement, Taring Padi said that ‘All figures depicted in the banner reference commonly-known symbols within the Indonesian political context, for example corrupt bureaucracy, military generals and their soldiers which are symbolized by pigs, dogs, and rats to criticize an exploitative capitalist system and military violence’. ‘Taring Padi,’ they continue, ‘is a progressive collective that has been campaigning to support and respect diversity. There is no record in our work that aims to portray any ethnic groups in a negative way. Figures, icons, caricatures, and other visual vocabularies in our works are always culturally specific to our own experiences. We are saddened that details in this banner are understood differently from its original purpose. We apologize for the hurt caused in this context. Therefore, with great regret, we cover up the work.’
A detailed critique of the act of censorhip and of the complex events surrounding it, as well as an analysis of the contested work of art, has been published by Marianne Dautrey, a journalist, philosopher, writer, and translator from German and, since 2017, head of the publishing department of the Institut national d'histoire de l'art in Paris.
Further links:
https://universes.art/en/documenta/2022/censorship-at-documenta-fifteen
https://artreview.com/documenta-obscures-artwork-over-antisemitism-allegations/
https://documenta-fifteen.de/news/verdeckung-einer-arbeit-von-taring-padi-auf-der-documenta-fifteen/
https://www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/antisemitismus/
Souhail Hamsho is a freelance audio producer currently based in Kassel, Germany. He is involved in the transcultural media network netzwerk medien.vielfalt! and in the project ‘Selbe Welle’.
Freies Radio Kassel is a local community radio operating since 1997. It is largely organised on a voluntary basis and offers interested parties the opportunity to produce and broadcast radio programmes, focusing on local and regional reporting as well as on music that is clearly different from that of commercial or public broadcasters. The programme is produced by local associations, initiatives and other groups as well as by individuals who are largely autonomous in the content and form of their broadcasts. Media literacy is at the core of community radio. This is done through a variety of media education projects, often in cooperation with schools, universities, youth centres and other educational institutions. https://www.freies-radio-kassel.de
