On the "artistic" mockery of Holocaust victims in Estonia

  • 2015-02-18
  • by Dr Inna Rogatchi

 

On February 7th, 2015, a peculiar exhibition opened at the Tartu Art Museum in Estonia, entitled: My Poland: Remembering and Forgetting. The exhibition, set to last until the end of March, was declared by the organisers to be a "Commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps and the end of the Second World War". The exhibition was supported and financed by the Estonian Culture Fund and the Estonian Ministry of Culture.

Other insulting works - with a capital "I" - depict a classic Los-Angeles landscape with giant letters spelling "HOLOCAUST" in place of HOLLYWOOD; a video where naked people are playing tag against the background of a gas chamber; a video in which an elderly man enters a tattoo salon asking ‘to renew’ his tattoo, the concentration camp’ number on his arm. All exhibits in this outrage are of the same character – boorish, arrogant, intentionally insulting mockery of the Holocaust using the genres of video, photography, comics and the other garbage, produced and curated by Poles and Estonians.

I believe that their names should be publicized in connection with their intentional, despicable deed. They are:  Zbigniew Libera, Joanna Rajkowska, John Smith (Marko Mäetamm and Kaido Ole), Wilhelm Sasnal, Artur Żmijewski and Yael Bartana. Most of them are Poles, two of them are Estonians, and one, Yael Bartana, is an Israeli living in Berlin and representing Poland in a number of international exhibitions.

Zbignew Libera, who is the author of the photograph Residents, the front-piece of the exhibition, is known previously for his Lego model of a concentration camp, and other scandalous lows of the exercises of the contemporary so-called art. Marko Mäetamn teaches in the Academy. Artur Zmijewski is the author of the Playing the Tag video which has been officially forbidden in Germany as insulting and inciting to Nazism.

All of these arrogant creatures enjoy the description of themselves as ‘a controversial artist’. What they produce – and what the museum’s cleaners, sane people, regularly throw in garbage bins after having genuinely taken it for a garbage – has as much to do with art as their messages have to do with humanity, morality, conscience, education, knowledge, common sense, and the other features which define a human being from a humanoid.

The curator of this outrage is 24-year-old Rael Artel who became the director of the Tartu Art museum in 2013, after having being an "independent curator" before then. Everybody in the art world knows what "independent curator" means in real life. Translation: nobody. But it does tell something about those who are in charge of culture in Estonia and promoting such creatures to the directorships of their museums.

On the so-called museum’s site there are several writings regarding the exhibition. In the first cheery communiqué, they tell about "outstanding samples of international contemporary art",  noting that almost all the artists are participants in the Venice Biennale – which sounds like a self-proof mantra for a 24-year old "independent curator". They happily list "only some of the strategies" the artists presented, applying to their interpretation of the Holocaust: "humour, irony,  marketing of history"; this applied in order "to compensate for the injustice” and for “creating an easier talk on Holocaust”.  

Why not  Legolize the Holocaust entirely? It is so funny, and so easy, for brainless, heartless, and sick anti-Semites. The Holocaust is called “an unpleasant topic” in the official press-release of that so-called museum. In another communication, the museum characterizes the Holocaust as “unpleasant smells of the history of matters”.

The museum also brands one of the key-exhibits, the extremely sick Playing a Tag video, as prohibited in Germany. And they add proudly: “There are many other scandalous and controversial works at the exhibition”.

To attract the public, they have issued a warning: “Attention: Exhibition's works of art may be disruptive”.

After the initial outrage that the exhibition caused in some Estonian circles, but not on a national or official level as yet, the museum decided to post an explanation of their mega-insult. In a rather short text, the general phrases from the initial press-release were repeated, speculating ambiguously  on modern-day "xenophobia in France, Ukraine and Middle East", nothing on Jews and terrorists there, of course.

The organizers stated that they did not intend “to make a cheap scandal”. Indeed, they did not; the costs of that so-called exhibition are quite high.

There was quite an effort expended to choose, to pick up, to collect, to transport, to insure, to mount, to publicize this collection of sick, malicious outrage, and to finance it all, every stage of it – by public money.

There is a process for approving the organising of such state-supported exhibitions, and here lies the core question on the way that Estonia commemorates the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camps and the end of the Second World War.  There were adults who were aware of the exhibition’s concept and its content, and those officials, all of them, are to be called responsible for the massive insult to the victims of the Holocaust and their families.

There is also full grounds for a collective class-action suit against the initiators and executors of such publicly organized demonstrations of mockery on the Holocaust, and such action is currently under consideration.

The very fact that such a disgusting travesty, such cheapening of the memory of millions could become possible is yet another sign of where we all find ourselves nowadays, when open, violent, blatant and shameless anti-Semitism has become not just accepted as a routine, but has become a fashion.

The Jewish Community of Estonia sent an official letter protesting the exhibition to the president of Estonia and the country’s leadership including its prime-minister, minister of culture, and members of the parliament.

The Estonian Members of the European Parliament have been also addressed on the issue.  And after the outrage caused by the exhibition in Tartu, both in Estonia and abroad, and after focused domestic and international protest over it, the Estonian authorities — led by their Minister for Culture — have reacted to the scandal promptly.

As the result of that reaction, the two most outrageous videos were pulled from the exhibition.

But there are stories inside the story, and some questions are still there.

Initially, the museum tried to keep the exhibition as it was, with only the concession of switching the horrifyingly sick videos from their ‘non-stop’ demonstration and with the note on the museum’s site that those videos “would be demonstrated now on visitors’ request, and with comments by the exhibition’s curator.” It was a funny way of reaction.

Why on the earth that 24-year old person believed that she could patronise anyone with her explanations on those “outstanding works of international art” as she attested the screaming mockery in the press-release for the exhibition’s opening?  

Then, quickly enough, the museum has announced that the two most scandalous videos will be pulled of the exhibition.  At the same time, the director of the museum has also given a couple of interviews to the Estonian media in which she did her best to emphasise that the museum is a state institution, and that they will do nothing without direct and concrete instructions from the ministry of culture.

It is good that they have got such instructions, understandably; and that the minister of culture has noted that “it should be a good lesson also for the museum’s board and its experts.” Indeed, so.

The announcement of the pulling the two videos on the museum’s site is worth reading, though. It is mentioned there: “The director of the museum Rael Artel apologises once more for the visitors, to whom the videos have caused suffering and confirms that it wasn’t the museum’s intention. “The topic is difficult and emotionally exhausting. We have unintentionally insulted the local Jewish community by exhibiting these artworks. We are sorry. The time is not right to discuss historically painful topics with the mediation of such provocative artworks.” (12.02.2015)

In her comments to the Estonian media at the same time, the director in her astonishingly patronizing way also did tell that “society is not ready to discuss the matters” – presumably, in the way she and her soul-mates are perfectly ready to do so.

What does she mean with “the time is not right” line on the museum site? Does she hope and is waiting for some moment when it would be ‘right’ and possible thing to do?

In its stone-walled insensitivity, the director of the museum is repeatedly mentioning only the visitors of exhibition, and only “local Jewish community.” How about anyone who has been deeply affected by the outcry cruelty of the works collected and exhibited in Tartu, and any Jewish community at all?

And not only Jewish ones, to add some sanity and decency to that outrageous episode: in unique development for our times, the Muslim community of Estonia issued public protest over the exhibition in their open letter to the Estonian authorities, with demand to shut down the exhibition altogether. The same has been done by the Society of the Georgians living and Estonia, and the Association of the People from the Caucasus living in Estonia, in their forceful joint open letter to the Estonian authorities, as well.

The poll conducted by the Postimees newspaper did show normal and healthy reaction of the Estonian public in general, with 96 per cent of its respondent considering the exhibition in question as crossing the borders of acceptable. The speaker of the Estonian parliament and two of his deputies were quick and clear in their unequivocal criticism of the exhibition and expression of their solidarity with the Jewish community of Estonia on the issue.

The longest serving foreign minister in the modern Estonian history Urmas Paet, who today is an MEP, was also prompt in his clear condemnation of the public insult of the Holocaust victims and their families and his willingness and determination to fix the problem quickly.

But was the 24-year old director of the Tartu Art Museum alone in her ideas and action on how to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps?

In the midst of the scandal over the exhibition in Estonia, there were some Estonian art life heavy-weight who did put their authority behind the outrageous action of the museum. In his interviews to the Estonian media, Jaan Elken, the professor at the art faculty of the Tartu University has characterized the notorious exhibition as a ‘strong one’ and suggested that “society is not used to the methods of contemporary art”. In the same patronizing manner performed by the director of the museum, he has recommended the public “to get familiar with contemporary art, in order to understand it better”. How about getting familiar with history and its facts better? Especially coming from someone holding an academic post. One can also suggest some introduction course of basic morality for civilized society, but it seems a luxury, in this case, perhaps.

Although there has been a proper official reaction and some positive changes in that disgusting exhibition, some questions are left:

Why has such an insulting mockery of the Holocaust not been shut down altogether? The other images of the exhibition are no less sickening and also cross all borders of acceptability. Why does the director, who is also the curator of the exhibition, still occupy her position? And why will this public insult to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and their families — which has been financed by public money — be allowed to run, even without two most offensive videos, until the end of March 2015?

We are still waiting for those answers to be responded to by the Estonian authorities.

Dr Inna Rogatchi is a writer, film maker, scholar, and president of The Rogatchi Foundation – www.rogatchi.org. Her forthcoming book is Dark Stars, Wise Hearts: Personal Reflections on the Holocaust in the Modern Times. The national premieres of her film The Lessons of Survival: Conversations with Simon Wiesenthal will have a place in Australia, France and the USA in the spring and summer 2015. She is the recipient of the Patmos Solidarity Prize 2014 for “for the passionate and creative approach in a hard labor of memory'.

An initial version of the article was first published in the Israel National News.