Photo Federico Gambarini/dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, a storied German art school, faced scrutiny this week from three Jewish groups over the invitation of Palestinian artist and filmmaker Basma Al-Sharif for an event.
Ahead of Al-Sharif’s lecture on January 21, the Jewish groups issued an open letter claiming, without proof, that Al-Sharif’s past events had been “characterized by the trivialization of terrorism and Israel-related antisemitism.” The groups then called for the cancelation of Al-Sharif’s Kunstakademie Düsseldorf event.
The letter went on to denounce posts by Al-Sharif on social media, including one that used the phrase “Zionist entity” to refer to Israel, which the Jewish groups claimed was antisemitic. Though the groups did not specify which posts they were referencing, Al-Sharif shared video of a pro-Palestine protest on Instagram in 2024, accompanying it with a caption using that phrase. “The lie of #neveragain is over,” her caption read. “The lie that the Zionist entity was ever a democracy is over. They will go down ugly. But they will go down.”
Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and based in Berlin, Al-Sharif has shown her work widely, with pieces appearing in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, the Sharjah Biennial, the Whitney Biennial, and other notable recurring art exhibitions.
In a statement to the German press agency dpa, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf confirmed that it would not cancel Al-Sharif’s event. After noting that the “terrorist attack by Hamas constitutes a grave crime,” the school said that Al-Sharif was invited on the basis of her CV and that a free dialogue remained important for its student body. “At the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, we therefore enable student initiatives to create a space for discourse through their own events. This also applies when dealing with controversial topics,” the school said.
ARTnews has reached out to Al-Sharif and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
Germany’s art scene remains roiled by Israel’s war in Gaza, with exhibitions canceled and opportunities revoked for artists who express public support for Palestine in the past two years. While the tension has eased in Germany since a ceasefire agreement was reached last year, the debate continues on, especially as Documenta, the country’s most celebrated art exhibition, plans its return in 2027.
In 2022, Documenta was unsettled by bitter allegations of antisemitism. Last year, the exhibition adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which considers speech against Israel a form of anti-Jewish prejudice. The decision remains controversial and prompted Marisa Merz’s daughter to cancel an exhibition for her late mother at the Fridericianum, the main venue of the Kassel art exhibtion.