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CULTURE

Top German art show starts amid anti-Semitism row

Break-ins and vandalism, accusations of racism and anti-Semitism and a giant compost heap: Documenta, one of the world's biggest art fairs, opens this week under a cloud of controversy.

Documenta art festival
A visitor at Documenta looks at a large work by the Indonesian art collective "Taring Padi" in the Hallenbad-Ost in Kassel. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

The exhibition, which turns the sleepy German city of Kassel into the centre of the art world once every five years, kicks off Saturday after months of bitter rows.

“Documenta has always been a place of exchange and heated debates,” Hesse state culture minister Angela Dorn said ahead of the 15th edition.

Over 100 days the wildly disparate works of more than 1,500 participants will be displayed at 32 sites across the city, with more than one million visitors expected.

For the first time since its launch in 1955, the show is being curated by a collective, Indonesia’s Ruangrupa.

The group’s decision to turn the spotlight overwhelmingly on artists from the Global South rather than Europe or the United States has opened up the event to a much broader range of perspectives.

“Documenta promises to be radical, from who is invited to the art, to the venues,” its director Sabine Schormann told reporters.

However the inclusion in particular of a Palestinian artists’ group strongly critical of the Israeli occupation has sent sparks flying.

READ ALSO: Kassel opens 13th ‘documenta’ art show

‘A big problem’

An anonymous blog posted by an “Alliance Against Anti-Semitism Kassel” in January accused the collective called The Question of Funding of having links to the BDS boycott Israel movement.

BDS was branded anti-Semitic by the German parliament in 2019 and barred from receiving federal funds. Around half of Documenta’s 42-million-euro ($44-million) budget comes from the public purse.

Several German media outlets picked up the criticism, prompting Ruangrupa to release an open letter condemning “bad faith attempts to delegitimise artists and preventively censor them on the basis of their ethnic heritage.”

Last month unknown vandals broke into the Palestinian exhibition space, leaving threatening graffiti scrawled on the walls.

A visit this week showed that at least one of the tags was still visible among a series of paintings and photographs documenting the hardships of life in Gaza.

A series of collages by Mohammed al-Hawajri combines the pictures from Gaza with Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece Guernica and other classic images of Western art by the likes of Delacroix, Chagall and Van Gogh to explosive effect.

Documenta art festival Kassel

Visitors look at works from the art collective “Avis Rezistans – Ghetto Biennale“ from Haiti in a Kassel church. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

Federal culture minister Claudia Roth has thrown her weight behind Ruangrupa and its guests, saying that while Germany understood its responsibilities due to its Nazi past, politically minded Muslim artists should be welcome.

Noting that Indonesia did not have diplomatic relations with Israel, she said: “I may not like that. But that can’t mean that an artist or collective from Indonesia is suspicious per se.”

News magazine Der Spiegel called the affair an embarrassing spectacle, saying “the German cultural sector has a big problem” with the tensions between artistic freedom, respect for minorities and the burden of the country’s dark history.

READ ALSO: German artist turns dirty walls into art via ‘reverse graffiti’

Repurposed sex club

Documenta began in 1955 in Kassel, which was home to a vast forced labour camp during World War II and was heavily bombed by the Allies.

It aimed to put Germany back on the cultural map after the Nazis’ campaign to crush the avant-garde.

Documenta now ranks with the Biennale in Venice among the world’s premier showcases of contemporary art. 

At one of the main venues, Kenya’s Wajukuu Art Project has installed a new entrance made of corrugated iron recalling Nairobi’s vast slums.

Return to send Kassel

An installation made from old clothing entitled “Return to sender”. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

Its pitch-dark tunnel is disorienting for visitors on arrival, an effect replicated in many of the Documenta venues including a repurposed cellar sex club.

In a park in front of the city’s baroque Orangerie, Nairobi’s Nest Collective has dumped textiles and electronic waste in a work entitled “Return to Sender”.

READ ALSO: Q&A: The Berlin duo encouraging people to ditch fast fashion

On the same field — and certain to draw the sniffs of Documenta sceptics — a compost pile complete with a toilet for guests to help fertilise the soil has pride of place, underlining a message of creative renewal.

Alongside sculpture and video installations are a Vietnamese herbal sauna, a halfpipe ramp for skateboarding and multimedia works documenting freedom struggles of Algerian women, black people in the Netherlands and Australia’s Indigenous communities.

Documenta runs until September 25th.

By Deborah COle

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EVENTS

Six fascinating events to dive into spring in Germany

Forsythia flowers are in full bloom and April is loaded with events to celebrate the warmer weather and sunshine to come. Here are some of our top picks.

Six fascinating events to dive into spring in Germany

Spring Festivals across Germany 

Starting around Easter weekend, Germany’s myriad spring festivals bring bright colours and beer-fueled revelry to cities around the country. 

Spring festivals come by many names in Germany – there’s the clearly named Frühlingsfest (spring fest) such as in Munich, or the Volksfest (people’s festival) like in Nuremberg, and then there are uniquely named local variations like Frankfurt’s Dippemess. But they all offer carnival rides, abundant food and drink, and an opportunity to see how German’s let loose – think Oktoberfest, but with a palpable spring theme.

This year both Dippemass in Frankfurt and Volksfest in Nuremberg begin in late March and continue until April 14th.

Munich’s Frühlingsfest will run from April 19th to May 5th. Stuttgart’s spring festival is on from April 20th to May 12th.

Readers in the north of the country may want to try Hamburg’s DOM running until April 21st this year.

Cherry blossom gazing

Delicate white and pink blossoms that appear only for a couple weeks in April, cherry blossoms are both a symbol of spring and object of fascination around the world, from the furthest reaches of East Asia to right here in Germany.

The early onset of warmer temperatures in Germany this year is causing cherry trees to bloom earlier than usual, but there should still be some blossoms on the trees during the previously scheduled cherry blossom festivals that take place in many German cities.

READ ALSO: Seven signs that spring has arrived in Germany

The city of Bonn’s old town, with its cherry tree covered streets, has become the go to spot for blossom gazing and photography in Germany. Early to mid-April tends to be the best time to visit, and this year the blossom-adorned streets will be closed to cars for three weekends starting from April 13th.

But if you don’t live close to Bonn you can find several locations around Germany where cherry blossoms are in full bloom here.

cherry blossoms Bonn

Tourists stroll under blossoming cherry trees in Bonn’s old town. In the narrow streets of the old town, blossoming trees form a pink canopy in April. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Thomas Banneyer

Music festivals begin

While the majority of Germany’s bigger music festivals are held in summer, there are quite a few in spring – with a few noteworthy music fests even happening in the coming month.

For fans of metal music, the 19th iteration of Ragnarök Festival will be held at Stadthalle Lichtenfels on April 4th to the 6th this year.

For something a little softer, Polimagie Festival in Dresden features indie, rock and pop artists from Germany, the UK, and Europe – from April 17th to 21st.

Alternatively, jazz and big band lovers are encouraged to check out the fourth Jazz Festival of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Several concerts will take place from the 17th to 22nd. Single tickets are around €20, and are found here.

International Women’s Film Fest in Dortmund and Cologne: April 16th to 21st

Germany’s largest forum for women in the film industry, the “Frauen Film Festaims to “strengthen the influence of women in all trades of the cinema industry: first and foremost directors, but also cinematographers, producers, screenwriters, composers, actors and more.”

It’s also an opportunity to see one of 95 films from 40 countries. Choose from screenings of short film collections or feature length films from debuting including those entered in the International Debut Feature Film Competition.

There are also workshops and discussions that allow attendees to meet some of the women behind the films.

Find more information here.

Gallery Weekend Berlin – April 26th to 28th

Since 2005, Berlin galleries have presented exhibitions by emerging and established artists during this three day event. 

The last gallery weekend included performances, screenings, sound pieces, readings, and installations. This year 55 galleries spread across Berlin’s central neighbourhoods will participate.

According to the event organisers, a handful of exciting new galleries will join the event this year including: Galerie Molitor, Noah Klink Galerie, Schiefe Zähne, Sweetwater and Heidi.

More information can be found at Gallery Weekend Berlin’s website.

witches stare each other down

On Walpurgis Nacht, people in witch and devil costumes storm the town hall in Wernigerode. The traditional Walpurgis festival is celebrated throughout the Harz Mountains. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Matthias Bein
 

Walpurgis Nacht

The origins of Walpurgis Night date back 1,000 years to pagan traditions in Germany, and is celebrated on the night of April 30th each year. 

St. Walpurgis was honoured with a feast day on May 1st, and people gathered to dance the night before. It’s also considered to be the time when witches gather. The name “Walpurgis Nacht” was popularised by Goethe’s Faust in 1808.

Smaller villages in some regions in Germany, like the Harz mountains, celebrate Walpurgis Nacht with festivals. Bad Grund, for example, hosts festivities including open air theatre and dancing. 

Walpurgis related celebrations can also be found in Germany’s bigger cities, such as Peaceful Walpurgis Night which is hosted in Berlin’s Mauerpark each year.

READ ALSO: Are you ready for Walpurgisnacht, Germany’s night of witches?

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