Laurie Anderson, the multidisciplinary artist and leading name in experimental pop music, accepted to be a guest professor at the Pina Bausch Chair at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany, but ultimately backed out when she learned that the institution had taken the plunge. Sign A Message against apartheid Palestinian artists launched this study to find out whether the North American company continued its criticism of Israeli policy after the Hamas attack on October 7.
“It was not easy for the university and the Pina Bausch Foundation [que patrocina a cátedra] “This decision was made by Laurie Anderson,” the foundation’s website states.
“The question is not whether my political views have changed. The real question is to know, in the first place, why this question is being asked,” said the artist. “With this situation in mind, I withdrew from the project. “My colleagues at Folkwang University and the Pina Bausch Foundation discussed the matter with me at length and we came to a joint decision that this is the best way forward.”
The university justified its concern about the possible lack of conditions for “focused” and “undisturbed” teaching by arguing that the document signed by Anderson supports the demands for financial and cultural pressure on Israel assumed by the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). ), which a resolution approved by the German Parliament in 2019 considers anti-Semitic, and prohibits state funding of any structures or persons who have a relationship with it or express their support for it.
The Berlin state government went further by approving, on January 4, the ephemeral “anti-discrimination clause” that artists must now adhere to in order to apply for any public funding. The decision sparked major protests in the cultural community, as thousands of artists threatened to boycott cultural institutions throughout the country, which led to the cancellation of the clause on the 22nd of this month.
Since the Hamas attack on October 7, there has been a growing debate in Germany about the limits of artistic freedom and expression, with a number of museums, universities and other institutions canceling artists and intellectuals who criticize, even if only on social media, freedom of expression. The Israeli response to the Hamas attack, or simply an expression of solidarity with the Palestinian victims of the Gaza invasion.
The Pina Bausch Chair Guest Professor position was only created in 2022, and Laurie Andersson would be the second person to hold it, after the Serbian artist Marina Abramović, if she had not now joined the already extensive list of German and foreign artists who have left their positions or had their projects canceled due to their positions. Against current Israeli policy.
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