Nan Goldin talks about war in Gaza at the opening of the Tense Berlin Exhibition

With tensions mounting over her solo show at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, Nan Goldin gave an impassioned speech at the exhibition’s opening, urging Germany to take seriously those seeking a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza.

Goldin’s show there, a traveling version of a study with her photographs and films, has become a source of controversy in the German press, which has fixated on her signature on a letter published in Art forum last year that called for a cease-fire in Gaza. That letter initially did not mention the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, which has led some German outlets to claim that Goldin’s endorsement of the letter was anti-Semitic.

“The word anti-Semitism has been weaponized,” Goldin said during the opening, of which the video was posted on social media. “It has lost its meaning. By declaring all criticism of Israel anti-Semitic, it makes it harder to define and stop violent hatred of Jews.”

She went on to note a simultaneous rise in Islamophobia, which she said was being “ignored” by the German state. “The weaponization of anti-Semitism is aimed at the Palestinian community in this country and those who speak out in support of them,” she added. “The ICC is talking about genocide. The UN is talking about genocide. Even the Pope is talking about genocide. Yet we must not talk about this as genocide. Are you afraid to hear this, Germany?”

During her speech, she called for four minutes of silence for Gaza. So like the German release Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reportedNeue Nationalgalerie director Klaus Biesenbach appeared to expressly reject Goldin in front of the assembled audience. He noted that he disagreed with Goldin, although he affirmed her right to her opinion.

“For us, Israel’s right to exist is unquestionable. The Hamas attack on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023 was a heinous act of terrorism that cannot be justified in any way,” Biesenbach reportedly said, before adding: “At the same time sympathizing we with the civilian population of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, whose suffering cannot be ignored.”

As Goldin and Biesenbach spoke, some attendees waved Palestinian flags. According to FAZBiesenbach was shouted at as he spoke.

Against the backdrop of a debate about Goldin’s show in Germany, the artist previously declined to speak at a symposium on anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and the war in Gaza, according to the German press agency dpa. She said on social media that the symposium, to be held this Sunday at the Neue Nationalgalerie, had been organized without her knowledge and that the event was an attempt by the museum to “prove that they do not support my politics.”

After her comment on the Instagram account of Strike Germany, a movement calling on artists not to work with institutions that uphold the German state’s “McCarthyist policy” on the war in Gaza, several artists pulled out of the event. Hito Steyerl, who was originally expected to give a keynote address, said she would no longer attend last week. Afterwards, artists Candice Breitz and Eyal Weizman also canceled scheduled performances at the event.

In a statement about the symposium sent to ART news earlier this week, Biesenbach said: “With the symposium ‘Art and Activism in Times of Polarization: Space for Discussion on the Middle East Conflict,’ curated by Saba-Nur Cheema and Meron Mendel, we intend to provide much-needed space for a constructive, long-awaited debate. We ask the urgent questions about the responsibility of political art in the current context of the Middle East conflict on the occasion of Nan Goldin’s exhibition, as she stands for political engagement as an active artist.”

His statement said the symposium was planned “independently” of Goldin, whose work he claimed would not be addressed at the event. “We fully support the artist’s right to express her opinion, even if we don’t always agree with her,” he added.