opinion
This Is Not Art!
BY DANIEL S. MARIASCHIN
O nce again, the nexus of art, culture, politics and
political bias against Israel and antisemitism is
roiling Germany.

The 15th Documenta, an international art show
held every five years in Kassel, Germany, opened
on June 18 and runs through Sept. 25. Curated
this year by the Indonesian collective ruangrupa
and including work by Taring Padi — an artists’
collective based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia — the
exhibition highlights works on violence and war,
some of it focusing on the late Indonesian dictator
Suharto. Included in the exhibition is an egregious
antisemitic banner in the style of street art or peo-
ple’s art, depicting Mossad operatives with pig
heads and faces against a backdrop of a classic
antisemitic character of an Orthodox Jew with
peyot and fangs, smoking a cigar and wearing a
hat adorned by an SS symbol.

At first covered up after significant outcry, it
was finally removed. But not before it was widely
seen. Removing the piece does not undo the
damage. Called out for this Der Stürmer-type “art,” Tarang
Padi’s response could be seen as either daft or
intentionally meant to defend the purpose of the
piece: “It is not meant to be related in any way to
anti-Semitism. … We are saddened that details
in this banner are understood differently from
its original purpose. We apologize for the hurt
caused in this context.”
“Understood differently from its original pur-
pose”? For heaven’s sake, this exhibition is occur-
ring in Germany. There is no hidden meaning in
any of this. For all to see, are symbols like that of
the SS that are banned from being displayed pub-
licly in Germany. And the Mossad with pig’s faces?
Who could miss this?
After an initial feeble response about respect
for “artistic freedom,” Germany’s Minister of
Culture Claudia Roth recalibrated and said
that such an expression “finds its limits” with
pieces like this. German President Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, in his remarks at the opening of the
exhibition, after saying that “art must provoke,”
acknowledged the antisemitism in the Taring
Padi piece by adding: “There is a need to talk
about these limits.”
The Israeli embassy in Germany simply called
it out for what it is: “Goebbels-style propaganda.”
Adding insult to injury, the inclusion in the exhi-
bition of the Palestinian collective, “Question of
Funding,” seemingly unconnected to Taring Padi,
has added additional fuel to the Documenta
fire. A number of German Jewish organizations
expressed their outrage over the presence of
12 JUNE 30, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
IF THIS IS “ART” —
WITH ITS HOOKED NOSES
AND STEREOTYPICAL SIDE
LOCKS, WHICH WAS THE
STUFF OF INCESSANT
ATTACKS ON GERMAN JEWRY
LESS THAN EIGHT DECADES
AGO, WITHIN THE MEMORY
TODAY OF THOSE WHO
SURVIVED THE SHOAH —
THEN SOMETHING NEEDS
TO BE DONE, AND SOON,
TO SENSITIZE INSTITUTIONS
LIKE DOCUMENTA.

the group, targeting Documenta for politicizing
its exhibition through the participation of a group
with a pronounced bias against Israel.

How does this happen in Germany? For the
past several years, some government-supported
Jewish museums, of all places, have been criti-
cized for politically tinged exhibitions that promote
the BDS campaign against Israel and criticize
Israeli settlement policy.

And now this.

The immediate reaction by Documenta, in a
moment of public-relations panic, was to cover
the offensive piece.

But covering up art revealed to be so egre-
giously offensive is merely to apply a Band-Aid.

It doesn’t speak to how such antisemitic-soaked
pieces like this manage to make their way into
otherwise respectable museums, galleries and
exhibitions. Is it sheer sloppiness and inattention
to detail? Or is it more than that: a way of using
art to express deeply held biases and prejudice?
Or in the case of Germany, is it a generational
issue, where the present leaders in politics, art
and culture don’t see the need or urgency or are
removed from the historical imperative, to block
such expressions of antisemitism on German
soil? Or all of the above?
In taking down the piece, Kassel Mayor Christian
Geselle said “we feel ashamed” with the appear-
ance of the Taring Padi piece having caused
“immense damage to the City of Kassel, the State
of Hesse and Documenta.” Roth has called for an
investigation into how the banner was included in
the exhibition in the first place.

Documenta’s general director, Sabine
Schormann, who also heads its primary exhibi-
tion space in Kassel — the Fridericianum — has
come under pointed criticism for her handling of
the issue, offering apologies to those “who have
been hurt” by the controversy and distancing her
organization from the Taring Padi piece.

Too often, our community has been on the
receiving end of expressions of remorse or “pain
caused” to the point where, once revealed, we
sort of expect that apologetic knock on the pro-
verbial door from a neighbor who just didn’t real-
ize what antisemitism is or why it causes us to rise
up when it appears.

The concern is not about this piece only. If
this is “art” — with its hooked noses and ste-
reotypical side locks, which was the stuff of
incessant attacks on German Jewry less than
eight decades ago, within the memory today of
those who survived the Shoah — then something
needs to be done, and soon, to sensitize institu-
tions like Documenta. There is no shelf-life on
Holocaust remembrance or on the antisemitism
that brought it all about.

Pig faces and SS symbols have no place appear-
ing in today’s Germany or anywhere else. That is
concerning enough.

Still, are we the only ones who are exercised
about this? As antisemitism sweeps the globe,
aided by the Internet through “art” like this, it is a
question to seriously ponder. JE
Daniel S. Mariaschin is the CEO of B’nai B’rith
International.