Folkwang ends cooperation with curator
The Museum Folkwang has ended its collaboration with the curator and author Anaïs Duplan, who lives in the USA. The reason was that Duplan had called for support for the BDS network via Instagram, the museum explained on Thursday. Several media outlets had already reported on the incident.
Duplan was supposed to work for the exhibition "We are the future. Visions of New Communities" exhibition at the museum in Essen, a chapter on "Afrofuturism". The exhibition will open on November 24.
The separation is not for artistic-curatorial reasons, "but solely for reasons of the curator's personal partisanship for the BDS campaign, which questions Israel's right to exist", according to a statement from the museum. The museum referred to a resolution of the German Bundestag, which had classified the network as anti-Semitic.
Duplan criticized the decision via Instagram. He wrote that he was completely speechless after working for the exhibition for more than a year. In an interview with the US art blog and magazine "Hyperallergic", he accused the museum of failing to make any attempt to engage in a real dialog about anti-Semitism. The timing of the dismissal so shortly before the start of the exhibition was also irritating. He had already been posting on the topic for weeks beforehand.
BDS stands for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions". The campaign calls for a boycott of the state of Israel and Israeli products because of its actions against Palestinians. In various posts on Instagram, Duplan had called for people to donate to legal Palestinian organizations, get involved with the BDS movement and start protest actions.
Despite the cancellation of her work on the "We are the future. Visions of New Communities" exhibition due to her support for the BDS network, Anaïs Duplan expressed her disappointment in a Instagram post, stating that she had spent over a year preparing for the Art Exhibitions in Essen. The ongoing conflicts surrounding the BDS movement and its stance against Israel's actions towards Palestinians have sparked debates in the art world, causing tensions between those who support the cause and institutions like Museum Folkwang.
Source: www.dpa.com
