Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens‘ News Blog 18 2023

Yes, there was a lot going on in Berlin during Gallery Weekend - and: yes, everyone who is anyone was there and immortalised themselves on Instagram. In particular, the chairmen of some museum associations never tired of trumpeting to the world: "I was here, too, and let's see who with whom". Art and the vanity fair have an intimate relationship. And in the end, that's a good thing, because art thus remains a topic in the world. Artists, too, have an interest in being noticed and in experiencing an increase in their market prices. It is also clear that artists of all genders are meant here. Galleries that succeed in increasing the prices of their artists are more successful than those that only care about the content but not about the market. It is all the more surprising when gallery owners brand the need for economic growth as the core problem of capitalism, as if this had never existed in the 5-year plans of the Soviet Union, the GDR and China. Many wars waged by potentates are due to the fact that they can no longer finance growth from their own resources in the long term. The renunciation of growth leads to a renunciation of prosperity, which ultimately also creates the funds for research that help to get the world's current problems under control, such as the climate crisis.

The National Gallery in Singapore looks at the development of art in the South East Asian region since around 1800, and you learn a lot about artists from the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indochina and Vietnam who have faced their historical challenges. Of course, the Vietnam War also plays a role. One of the few Western works is a 25-minute film by Harun Farocki from 1969, "nicht löschbares Feuer" (fire that cannot be extinguished), German with English subtitles and played and shot in the most beautiful aesthetics reminiscent of the GDR. The accompanying text on the wall refers to the use of napalm by the USA and the responsibility of the chemical industry for the production of the substance. There is no indication on the wall that the film is a re-enacted cinematic examination of the subject. Regardless of the question of whether people even read the labels, I am left with the impression that napalm was developed by the German chemical industry on behalf of the government. In fact, it was a professor named Louis Frederik Fieser, who taught at Harvard University, who developed napalm. It is difficult to present work in a different cultural context without causing potential collateral damage.

Which brings us to the thought barriers of German opinion-forming bodies, whether publicly or privately funded. One part genderises and thus thinks it is progressive, such as the Cologne city council (where, by the way, people still fly, which a Wuppertal professor feels is no longer in keeping with the times and therefore wants to see people on the oh-so-punctual train), the other part wants to protect people from hearing words that have not been used pejoratively in the German language for centuries because they are supposedly meant in a condescending and exclusionary way. Since then, gypsy schnitzel has disappeared from the menu and we are no longer allowed to call our black fellow citizens by the N-word, because it is derived from the American word for humiliating slaves. It is true that it only comes from Latin and refers to a colour, which also happens to be the same as that of the people. But you can never say it. Now the mayor of Tübingen, Palmer, has dared not only to use the N-word, but also to shout at a few provocateurs who are not quite sure about history and who have assigned him to the Nazis: "That is nothing other than the Jewish star. And that's because I used a word on which you base everything else. If you say a wrong word, you are a Nazi for you. Think about it." This can be understood in the best sense, as Hannah Arendt described it in "Power and Violence", that the systems of fascism and communism differ in content but not in their factual impact and use of violence on people. Rezzo Schlauch, about whom one was never quite sure of a nomen est omen during his active time as a politician, resigned his mandate as Palmers' lawyer because for him the branding of Jews by the star in Nazi Germany is sacrosanct and may not be used in any other context. The excitement at the 4th Estate is audibly moralin. Palmer is certainly many things, but certainly not a Nazi.

at the end of the week the Art Karlsruhe begins....

We wish everyone a successful week now that the working class fighting day is behind us.

Stephan Zilkens and the Team of Zilkens Fine Art insurance broker GmbH in Solothurn nand Cologne