Germany has been in the news recently after a wave of cancellations made international headlines. The reason offered by the institutions involved, the German punditry, and the current government, is that contemporary art is saturated with antisemitism. But the rhetorical function of these unjust accusations becomes evident if we look at how they have been put to use: to mask racism as antiracism.
Though it is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when political encroachment began to manifest in Germany, it was well before the Hamas militants’ attacks on southern Israel communities on October 7. The allegations of financial mismanagement hurled at the Documenta 14 curatorial (2002), which included antisemitic imagery and was taken down within days of its unfurling. The embattled exhibition never regained its autonomy. In June 2023, Documenta interim director Alexander Farenholtz suggested that curators had been disinvited from the Documenta 16 finding committee after being politically profiled. This admission seemed to alarm very few, considering Germany’s violent history of suppressing dissent. Shortly afterwards, a smear campaign resulted in curator Ranjit Hoskoté’s resignation from the Documenta 16 finding committee in November 2023 and the subsequent withdrawal of all other members.
