It is only relatively recently that antisemitism in contemporary art has been a focus of discussions. [Antisemitism is another word for the discrimination of Jewish people. And contemporary art is art of today.] However, antisemitism has existed for a very long time. Antisemitism has always been spread through the language and images of art.
The film Der Erlösungskomplex [The Redemption Complex] (Germany, 21:09 min) deals with exactly this topic. It was produced by the Forum Democratic Culture and Contemporary Art.
After the film screening, the audience is invited to a discussion with the artists. The discussion is led by the art and cultural scientist Nanne Buurman. The Forum Demokratische Kultur und Zeitgenössische Kunst and Nanne Buurman were invited by the Kunsthalle Osnabrück and the Museumsquartier Osnabrück
The Forum Democratic Culture and Contemporary Art is a space for artistic cultural criticism. It was founded by the two artists Fabian Bechtle and Leon Kahane. In cooperation with cultural institutions, the Forum produces artistic contributions and accompanying programmes for current socio-political debates, with a special focus on the cultural continuities of antisemitism. Previous activities of the forum have included the conference Antisemitismus als Kontinuität kulturpessimistischer Weltbilder at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2018), the discussion event um des lieben Frieden willen at the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (2019), the discussion series Kontinuitäten des Antisemitismus at the Volksbühne Berlin (2019-2021), the video lectures Antimoderne Kontinuitäten for the Weserburg Museum für Moderne Kunst in Bremen (2020), the production of the Forum Infoclips as part of the exhibition I will survive by Hito Steyerl at K21 in Düsseldorf (2020/2021), the exhibition Forum TV at Traklhaus Salzburg (2021), the podcast Antisemitismus im Kunstfeld (2021), the film production Freiham/Neuaubing for the Departure Neuaubing project of the NS Documentation Centre in Munich (2022), the exhibition Walhalla to Birkenau at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück (2022) and the film production Der Erlösungskomplex for the conference Von der Kunstfreiheit gedeckt? at the House of the Wannsee Conference (2023).
Nanne Buurman is a research associate for art theory at the University of Cologne. From 2018 to 2020, she was involved in the establishment of the documenta Institute and the transdisciplinary research centre for exhibition studies (TRACES) at the University of Kassel as a research associate for documenta and exhibition studies at the Kunsthochschule Kassel and co-founded the documenta studien web platform. In 2019, Nanne Buurman led the project seminar in freiheit dressiert // being natural is simply a pose, in which she and students from the Kunsthochschule Kassel critically questioned the appropriation of nature and naturalness by (neo)right-wing movements and neoliberal sustainability marketing. The examination of the political ambivalences of life-reforming purification movements of just over a hundred years led to an exhibition in Kassel, which was presented as a performative as a guest performance as part of the Show and Try Again anniversary programme of the Cultures of the Curatorial master’s programme in the gallery of the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. From 2020 to 2022, she co-led the dis_continuities research group for research into Nazi continuities at documenta. In this context, she founded the cross-university project Rechte Kontinuitäten in der Kunstausbildung und an Kunsthochschulen with colleagues from Leipzig in 2020 and curated the experimental arrangement wir alle sind gespenster: haunting infrastructures at the Kasseler Kunstverein in 2021. In 2022, Nanne Buurman organised the project g/hosting the past as part of documenta fifteen at the invitation of the Ghetto Biennale Haiti, which dealt with the invisibilised ethno-national and colonial histories of exhibitions such as documenta. Her contribution angels of history: gothic gowns/formless forms problematised, among other things, anti-Semitic continuities in German culture, especially in documenta (pre-)history.
