Shame on Us - Report from Kassel
At the Sara Nussbaum Zentrum fur Judisches Leben
By Franco Berardi (posted to nettime with permission of the author)
As you can see in the list below, the German press has criticised with
different tones the choice of documenta14 to host the performance Auschwitz on
the beach conceived by me, Stefano Berardi (musician) and Dim Sampajo (visual
artist).
Some centres of Jewish culture harshly criticised the organisers of documenta14
of symbolic violence against the memory and of relativisation of the Holocaust.
So, together with the organisers of documenta, Paul Preciado and Adam Szymczyk,
I decided to cancel the performance and to replace it with a public discussion,
opened by a conference by me and (so was in our intentions) a reading of the
text of the performance.
As soon as I arrived in Kassel I went to the Sara Nussbaum Centre, the main
centre for Jewish cultural in town, together with Paul and Adam.
The discussion there has been extremely moving and meaningful.
We sat around a long rectangular table: six representatives of the centre, I,
Paul and Adam.
First we have discussed about the decision to host the performance taken by
documenta14. One of the members of the centre told us that the political
decision to host the performance was wrong, because the memory of Auschwitz has
a character of specificity and of unicity that cannot be relativised.
As a reply Paul ad Adam have insisted on the point that their intention was
absolutely not the trivialisation of the memory of Auschwitz, but the contrary:
emphasis on that memory as something that is not belonging only to the Jews,
but belongs to the human kind.
Eva Schulz-Jander, coordinator of the centre Gesellschaften fur
Christlich-Judische Zusmmenarbeit, said that she was conscious that we were not
motivated by antisemite intentions, but has reaffirmed that the name of
Auschwitz belongs to the Jewish memory. Then in order to emphasise hers
proximity to our vision of the european migration problem she reminded that in
1938 the German Jews who tried to migrate to the United Kingdom and to the
United States experienced the same rejection that migrants of today are
receiving from the European authorities. Numerous Jews have died in the Nazis
concentration camps because the anglo-americans rejected them for the same
reasons that European governments are now using to reject people from Siria and
from Nigeria.
Why did I pronounce that word?
At that point I have said that my decision of pronouncing the (certainly
provocative) expression Auschwitz on the beach had been taken when I realised
that in the present condition of the Mediterranean, Auschwitz could be named as
a shield, as a protection against the danger (that in my humble opinion is more
and more real) of a comeback of Auschwitz.
I quoted then the words of Gunther Anders who in We, sons of Eichmann writes
about the possibility of a coming back of Nazism in a society in which
technique takes the upper hand on humanity,
Is not Auschwitz the first experiment of an industrialised management of the
extermination?
Then the person who is in charge of the assistance to the Auschwitz survivors
spoke, and with voice broken by the emotion she described the suffering that
the “artistic” use of the word had provoked in them.
I have asked to speak again, and said that I admit that I have not the right to
provoke the suffering of people who have already suffered so much, no matter
what my reason may be.
Therefore, even if I maintain the conviction that politically speaking the
danger of a comeback of Nazism is looming, I will not read my text at the
forthcoming conference, and I will cancel that text from the memory of my
computer.
The meeting closed, and we left the room in friendship, promising each other to
stay in contact. Paul and Adam invited them to come to the evening event, Shame
on us.
Three of them actually came, and their presence during the discussion has been
overwhelmingly important, even crucial.
At 8.30 the Rotonda was crowded, and I hope that I’ll soon be able to put
online the video recording of the discussion, that many persons have followed
in streaming. Paul Preciado gave a short introduction, speaking of the meaning
of the Parliament of Bodies, the space where bodies are enabled to express
themselves through the images and words of artists.
Then he explained the meaning of the title of the event, Shame on us. Some of
the people who had sent messages of critique had closed their messages with the
words: shame on you.
And we actually feel shame, because we are unable to stop (at the moment) the
coming back wave of fascism in Europe.
Then I started to speak.
A process of extermination that we have to stop
First I gave some information: how many people have officially died in the
Mediterranean (30.000). How many are possibly died unofficially. How many
people are dying in the deserts because of the blockage decorated by the
European governments. I define those figures by the name: extermination, and I
note that the process is only starting. Then I said that the reason of the
discrimination is racial.
If I want to go to Lagos or to Tunis I buy a ticket and I fly there. Why the
reciprocal is impossible? Is it not a mark of racial discrimination?
Extermination and racial discrimination in my opinion equals Nazism. Am I wrong?
I went on saying that the European population has decided to start a war, like
George Bush decided to start a war in 2003. And this war we will lose, as the
Americans have lost their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The white people will
lose their wars for two simple reasons.
The first reason is that, thanks to the deregulation of the market, the mass
destruction weapons are no more a prerogative of the western white people. Kin
Jong Un has recently declared that western people have to wake up from their
dream that death is concerning only the others. Now, he said, we are able to
bring death to your lands. As we know this is technically true, as the nuclear
technology has escaped the control of the white potencies of the world.
Secondly: since when bin Laden did wreak havoc in Manhattan and unchained a war
that the Us have already lost, an army of suicidal avengers is periodically
terrorising the European cities, and will go on doing so.
The army of potential avengers is immense.
Only peace, solidarity, open arms, and redistribution of wealth will be a way
to escape a war that we are already losing, a war that will destroy the daily
life of our cities and of our progeny.
At the end I have recounted about the encounter of the afternoon, and I said
more or less textually: I still think that the European population and
governments are behaving in a way that looks like a comeback of fascism, but
simultaneously I have realised today that it is not my right to harm people who
have already been suffering so much. Therefore I renounce to the reading of my
text of Auschwitz on the beach, and I engage myself not to publish it.
I ripped apart the sheets where the poem was printed, and I have said thank you
for your kind attention.
Financial capitalism does exist.
After my talk a debate has started that I’m no able to resume accurately, but I
hope we’ll soon see the video recording. Just I want to report one thing.
Among the first to speak is a middle aged man, who had been very nervous all
along my talk. He trashed me because I had said the words “financial
capitalism” that in his opinion is a sign of my antisemitism.
I was preparing to reply when Eva, that I had previously met at the Sara
Nussbaum Zentrum, took the mike and said that the identification of financial
capitalism as a Jewish phenomenon is exactly one of the rightwing
manipulations. Financial capitalism is an economic form that for no reason can
be ethnically identified.
My memory and my few notes make it impossible for me to say more, only I can
say that the following discussion has been rich and tender.
I hope that I’ll soon receive a copy of the video-recording, which I’ll put
immediately online.
--
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/arts/auschwitz-on-the-beach-documenta-14-controversy.html
18.8.17
— Jungle World:
https://jungle.world/blog/von-tunis-nach-teheran/2017/08/auschwitz-am-strand-die-documenta-ueber-den-einsatz-von-zyklon
—Tagesspiegel:
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/documenta-kassel-proteste-gegen-performance-auschwitz-on-the-beach/20209562.html
—Bündnis gegen Antisemitismus Kassel:
https://www.bgakassel.de/blog/august-2017/wo-engagement-drauf-steht-ist-auch-antisemitismus-drin-documenta-14/
—Jüdische Gemeinte Kassel:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1874064969276806&id=121361114547209
http://www.mena-watch.com/mena-analysen-beitraege/documenta-14-eine-analogie-die-keine-sein-soll/
—Israelitische Kultusgemeinde München und Oberbayern:
http://www.ikg-m.de/documenta-14-geplante-performance-auschwitz-on-the-beach-knobloch-verantwortungslose-relativierung-des-holocaust-darf-nicht-stattfinden/
Dazu Charlotte Knobloch, Präsidentin IKG: „Titel und Ankündigungstext sind
absolut geschichtsblind und obszön. Die Flüchtlingsthematik mit Termini aus dem
Kontext der systematischen nationalsozialistischen Judenvernichtung zu
beschreiben, also die Gleichsetzung mit der Shoa ist unhaltbar, zeugt von
unsäglichem Unwissen und entbehrt jeglichen Schamgefühls.
—Deutschlandfunk:
http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/documenta-in-kassel-auschwitz-aktion-sorgt-fuer-empoerung.2849.de.html?drn:news_id=781816
—Deutschlandfunk Kultur:
http://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/documenta-performance-sorgt-fuer-empoerung.265.de.html?drn:news_id=781802
—Jüdische Allgemeine: http://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/article/view/id/29390
19.8.17
—https://www.hna.de/kultur/documenta/kritiker-fordern-documenta-performance-auschwitz-on-the-beach-soll-verboten-werden-8609284.html
They are basically repeating the annoyance of CDU and the Jüdische Gemeinde
about the event. What's new is that they apparently approached Christian
Geselle to cancel the event as OB. Geselle did not comment on this.
—Berliner Morgenpost:
https://www.morgenpost.de/kultur/article211632645/Empoerung-ueber-Performance-Auschwitz-on-the-beach.html
—Sara Nussbaum Zentrum für Jüdisches Leben:
http://sara-nussbaum-zentrum.de/performance-der-documenta-14-relativiert-die-nationalsozialistische-judenvernichtung/
—neues deutschland:
https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/1061005.hoffen-auf-einsehen.html
20.8.17
—https://www.hna.de/kassel/documenta-14-ere336255/ob-geselle-zu-auschwitz-aktion-documenta-ungeheuerliche-provokation-8609631.html
Christian Geselle reacted: He will not interfere but he expressed his sympathy
with the jewish communities.
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