We have been appointed by the shareholders of documenta gGmbH as a scientific advisory panel to analyze those works that have been identified or discussed as antisemitic, examine how documenta fifteen has dealt with incidents of antisemitism, and develop proposals on how to prevent similar occurrences in future. Due to the ongoing controversy surrounding individual exhibits and documenta fifteen as a whole, there is a particular urgency for consultation on these issues. We have therefore submitted to the shareholders an initial assessment by the Undersigned Members of the Panel, which is more comprehensive in some respects than the statement by the panel as a whole.
1. At the Level of Exhibited Works, Film and Archive Materials.
At the level of the exhibited works, the most urgent task, in the panel’s view, is to stop the screening of the compilation of pro-Palestinian propaganda films from the 1960s-1980s by the collective “Subversive Film,” shown under the name “Tokyo Reels Film Festival.” What is highly problematic about this work are not only the film documents laced with antisemitic and anti-Zionist fragments, but also the artists’ comments inserted between the films, where the hatred of Israel and the glorification of terrorism featured in the source material is legitimized through their uncritical discussion. The historical propaganda material is not critically reflected upon – as it doubtless should be – but affirmed as a purportedly objective factual report. As a result, the films pose a greater danger in their potentially inciteful impact than the already removed “People’s Justice” work.
Many of the films present Israel and its armed forces exclusively as perpetrators who deliberately attack civilians, especially women and children. By contrast, the Palestinian side is portrayed as innocent and defenseless. The repeated terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians are not mentioned here – nor in the entire exhibition – nor is the fact that Israel has been regularly attacked by the armies of Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Moreover, the one-sided negative portrayal of Israel turns into open antisemitism on several occasions. To cite but one example: Israel is accused of being “fascist” in nature and of carrying out “genocide” against the Palestinians – it is thus equated with National Socialist Germany. Equating Israeli policies with those of the Nazis in this way must be judged as antisemitic, for example, according to the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which has been adopted by many nations, including some countries of the Global South. Also problematic is the genesis of the work. According to the documenta website, Masao Adachi played a role in entrusting Subversive Film with the film reels. Adachi was a member of the Japanese Red Army and collaborated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, two groups that carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli and other civilians, including the 1972 Lod Airport massacre where 26 people were murdered. A possible resumption of screenings of the films would only be conceivable if they were contextualized in a way that clarified the propaganda nature of the films, clearly identified their antisemitic elements, and corrected historical misrepresentations.
In the view of the Undersigned Members of the Panel, the “Tokyo Reels Film Festival” is the most glaring example of documenta fifteen’s bias with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict which is dealt with by a comparatively large number of works. Almost all these works express attitudes that range from critically biased to decidedly anti-Israeli. These attitudes are reflected in the pictorial representations and statements, which can be judged as anti-Semitic according to commonly accepted criteria. This becomes particularly evident when the existence of Israel is questioned or denied in the works. From this perspective, the Undersigned Members of the Panel consider it necessary to examine the series of works “Guernica Gaza” and documents from the Archives des luttes des femmes en Algérie. The analysis of these and other works – among others by Taring Padi – is still ongoing. More detailed statements will be made available to the shareholders at a later date.
2. At the Level of the Artistic Direction
In the view of the Undersigned Members of the Panel, the described bias of the presented positions on the Arab-Israeli conflict cannot be attributed to the individual artists, but is a consequence of a curatorial concept of the Artistic Direction, which deliberately refrained from control over the compilation and presentation of the exhibition. This in principle welcome dialogical and cooperative approach, however, does not change the overall curatorial responsibility of ruangrupa. The Artistic Direction alone had the opportunity to look at the exhibition from an overall perspective. Even if it may have deliberately refrained from such an overview, it remains responsible for the entire exhibition. As a result, the Artistic Direction is responsible for a documenta in which anti-Semitic works were exhibited and Israel and Israelis appear exclusively as perpetrators and aggressors. The impression of a curatorial imbalance is reinforced by the fact that the exhibition does not give any scope for debate on National Socialism and the Shoah and their consequences, nor to Jewish perspectives on the Middle East conflict, and by the fact that the Artistic Direction has always associated its own political project with the curation. We also find problematic the Artistic Direction’s failure to grapple with the anti-Semitic incidents, the criticism of which is discredited as “censorship”.
3. At the Level of documenta Organization Also at the level of the documenta organization, the Undersigned Members of the Panel are of the opinion that the procedural processes and communication in response to the discussions are inadequate if not counterproductive. For dealing with problematic works, documenta does not seem to have a procedure in place that goes beyond examining the culpability of an exhibit. The documenta organization does not seem to be set up to mediate in the event of internal or public criticism of the project or the Artistic Direction. The Undersigned find it particularly regrettable that documenta management failed to enter into a sustained dialogue with representatives of the Jewish community in Germany after the events began.
Taking these three levels together, it becomes clear that the serious problems of documenta fifteen exist not only in the presentation of isolated works featuring anti-Semitic imagery and statements, but also in a curatorial and organizational structural environment that allowed an anti-Zionist, antisemitic, and anti-Israel sentiment.
Signatories:
Nicole Deitelhoff (Chair)
Julia Bernstein
Marina Chernivsky
Peter Jelavich
Christoph Möllers
This press release was translated from German into English by GRIOT. The original version can be found here.
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