Jewish-American artist and activist Nan Goldin criticized the German state and its unconditional loyalty to Israel in a searing speech during the opening reception of her retrospective at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin last Friday evening, November 22. The 14-minute speech received enormous support from a crowd of pro-Palestinian activists and artists on the ground, whose chants drowned out the words of museum director Klaus Biesenbach, who spoke shortly afterwards. Also Goldin’s speech sparked intense disapproval from German politicians and administrators as the nation continues its crackdown on any criticism of Israel or Zionism.
Taking the stage at the opening of her traveling exhibition This won’t end wellGoldin first led a moment of silence in honor of the tens of thousands of civilians killed in Gaza and Lebanon and the 815 Israeli civilians killed on October 7. claiming that her art and activism were separate.
‘Why did I feel like I had to talk tonight? This is my lifetime retrospective, but there is nothing in it from the past year. The museum kept its promise to let me speak, and I thank them. But they claim that my activism and my art are separate, even though that has never been the case,” Goldin said. “Since October 7, I have had trouble breathing. The past year for me was Palestine and Lebanon. I feel the catastrophe in my body, but it’s not in this show.
“Why can’t I speak, Germany?” she asked rhetorically, referring to the convergence of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in the German state.
“This is a false equivalence used to maintain the occupation of Palestine and oppress those who speak out. The word anti-Semitism has been weaponized; it has lost its meaning,” Goldin continued. “By labeling all criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic, it becomes more difficult to define and stop the violent hatred against Jews.”
Highlighting how Berlin’s Palestinian community is one of the largest diaspora populations in Europe, Goldin stated that the German government has ignored Islamophobia, embracing state violence against Palestinians and suppressing “180 artists, writers and teachers since October 7”, including many of them Jewish.
“What have you learned, Germany?” she asked, after underlining the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US-backed attacks by the Israeli army on Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. Holding banners, flags and signs, the keffiyeh-clad crowd waved in response: “Nothing!”
Goldin ended her speech with a call for pro-Palestinian activists to unite for the cause and amplify the voices of Palestinians, prompting cheers. As Biesenbach approached the stage, his words were all but drowned out as the crowd continued to sing.
“As I said earlier in my introduction, I do not agree with your opinion,” Biesenbach began in response to Goldin’s speech. “Yet I support your right to express yourself freely.”
“Israel’s right to exist is beyond dispute for us,” Biesenbach continued, speaking on behalf of the Neue Nationalgalerie. “The attack on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023 was a brutal act of terror that cannot be justified by anything.”
Biesenbach noted that he and the museum also empathize with the citizens of Gaza and Lebanon, adding that “all people in the Middle East have the right to live without fear and with the assurance of their safety.” The director ended his speech by rejecting the cultural boycott of Israel, citing the museum’s obligations to freedom of expression and its historical responsibility to the Jewish state, and that it “calls for or incites violence, the legitimization or trivialization of terrorist acts, the wounding and killing of civilians or the support of terrorist organizations.”
In response to HyperallergicWhen asked for comment by the Neue Nationalgalerie, a spokesperson for the Neue Nationalgalerie said that “slogans were shouted that are not in accordance with the institution’s Code of Conduct.”
“The Neue Nationalgalerie explicitly distances itself from the statements of the demonstrators and emphasizes its commitment to freedom of expression, respectful dialogue and mutual respect,” the representative said.
While Goldin’s confrontational speech was welcomed by the pro-Palestinian attendees, the German Culture Minister Claudia Roth criticized the photographer because of her “unbearably one-sided political views”, she said she was “shocked” by the way people in the audience chanted slogans such as “Free Palestine” during Biesenbach’s speech. Berlin culture senator Joe Chialo also condemned Goldin’s “one-sidedness” and “obliviousness to history,” and Hermann Parzinger, chairman of the Prussian Foundation for Cultural Heritage, said the artist’s speech “does not correspond to our understanding of freedom of expression’.
The conflicts that had been simmering in the Neue Nationalgalerie in recent weeks reached each other a boiling point during Goldin’s opening reception. The museum had planned a symposium titled “Art and Activism in Times of Polarization: A Discussion Space on the Middle East Conflict” for November 24 – two days after the opening of the retrospective. The boycott organization Strike Germany drew attention to the event, compiled by Pakistani-German political analyst Saba-Nur Cheema and Israeli-German writer Meron Mendel. Instagram post claiming that the symposium would be “dominated by genocide-denying Zionists, while pretending to advance multiple ‘nuanced’ positions.” Achieved by HyperallergicCheema and Mendel said the symposium was intended to “create a controversial yet respectful space to discuss the role of the Israel-Palestine conflict in the art world.”
The event’s panelists included South African anti-Zionist Jewish artist Candice Breitz, Eyal Weizman of Forensic Architecture, Israeli artist Ruth Patir of the deliberately closed pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Palestinian artist Osama Zatar and Turkish-German artist Raphael Malik, among others, with filmmaker Hito Steyerl planned to deliver the keynote speech. Steyerl, Weizman, Breitz and Malik withdrew from the symposium after Goldin said she had not approved the program and requested its cancellation.
In their emails to Biesenbach withdrawing from the symposium, both Steyerl and Breitz stated that their participation was conditional on Goldin’s agreement to the event and fair treatment of the photographer, respectively.
“It is clear to me that the museum organized this symposium as a prophylactic means to secure its position in the German discussion – in other words, to prove that they do not support my politics,” Goldin said in a comment on the post from Strike Germany.
