Documenta: Sedition? No investigations into the anti-Semitism scandal

2023-04-18 10:46:36

Art “crime not given”

No further investigations into the anti-Semitism scandal at Documenta

As of 10:46 a.m | Reading time: 3 minutes

Documenta staff taking down the large banner “People’s Justice” by the Indonesian artists’ collective Taring Padi

Source: dpa

You can listen to our WELT podcasts here

In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is required, since the providers of the embedded content as third-party providers require this consent [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (which can be revoked at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can withdraw your consent at any time via the switch and via privacy at the bottom of the page.

25 advertisements were received against the controversial Documenta art show – there was talk of incitement to hatred and anti-Semitism. The public prosecutor’s office in Kassel, however, sees no criminal offenses and also refers to cultural differences.

Dhe public prosecutor’s office in Kassel has rejected the initiation of preliminary proceedings against artists, curators, the directors of “documenta fifteen” and political leaders for incitement to hatred. According to a notice to the 25 people reporting the crime, which is available to the Evangelical Press Service (epd) and is also reported by the dpa news agency, there is no criminal offense under current law.

The agency had previously acted ex officio following media coverage of allegations of anti-Semitism regarding the works “People’s Justice” by artist collective Taring Padi and the work “Guernica Gaza” by artist group Eltiqa. A soldier with a pig’s face was featured on the large Taring Padi banner, which was taken down shortly after the opening of the art show due to the allegations.

Mayor Christian Geselle also in sight

A total of 25 people or institutions reported to the police headquarters in North Hesse and the public prosecutor’s office and filed criminal charges. It was essentially about the accusation that the works of art in question had an anti-Semitic or inflammatory character, it said.

In addition to the artists, the criminal charges were also directed against the organizers of the exhibition and those responsible for the “documenta fifteen”, i.e. curators and politically responsible persons, including in particular the former mayor of Kassel, Christian Geselle (SPD).

also read

Arrogant and resistant to criticism

In a 20-page press release from the public prosecutor’s office, it was said that the fact that the large painting by Taring Padi was created in 2002 in the Asian cultural area and had previously been exhibited in other countries “rather speaks against a connection to the domestic Jewish population was intended”, even if parts of the local population – for example Jews living in Germany – feel a special connection to the State of Israel “for understandable reasons”, according to the authority.

A disturbance of the public peace can hardly be proven. In addition, an “incitement to hatred” in the sense of hate speech “cannot (yet) be seen in the visual representation,” it said. A call for violent or arbitrary measures is not sufficiently clear from Taring Padi’s work. The same applies to other works of art against which the ads are directed.

For years the works of art were shown without problems

A “prosecutable insult as well as incitement to hatred” also stands in the way of the fact that it cannot be ruled out that the artist group and curators are subject to “an unavoidable error of law”, that the representations are covered by freedom of art and freedom of expression, since they have been distributed worldwide for years were exhibited in various places “without there ever having been any complaints relevant to criminal law or even discussions,” according to the public prosecutor.

also read

In addition, the artists and curators against whom the advertisements were directed were “without exception foreigners who did not speak German” who “only stayed temporarily in the Federal Republic of Germany and who come from a completely different cultural area” with its legal system on the occasion of the art show local regulations is not comparable. Alongside the Venice Biennale, the Documenta is the most important exhibition for contemporary art.

According to the public prosecutor’s office, however, the decision does not mean that the works of art that became conspicuous during the “documenta fifteen” could also be exhibited at any time in the future with impunity. It always comes down to an “overall view of all circumstances and the specific overall context”. You can appeal against the decision to the General Public Prosecutor’s Office in Frankfurt am Main.