21/05/2025
TW: CENSORSHIP / PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE
Today was supposed to be a screening evening as part of our exhibition Cosmopolitics, currently taking place at in Berlin.
We wanted to use one of the first 2 images of this post to communicate about the event, which was refused by Kunstbrücke. The 3rd image, however, was accepted. The reasons were clear: no presence of the Palestinian flag.
We refused to submit to such censorship, which led to the cancellation of the event.
These images are taken from the short film by , A Space Exodus (2009), which was part of our screening program. We see the artist leaving Earth and planting the Palestinian flag on the Moon, before drifting in outer space. These scenes evoke the displacement imposed on Palestinians for nearly 80 years, leaving the cosmos as the last speculative refuge of an endless Nakba.
This refusal is not a real surprise, knowing the pressure faced by many public institutions, in Germany and across Europe, to not take position on what is insidiously presented as a conflict between two sides.
While the people of Palestine are suffering from a genocide, limitless colonialism causes massive population displacements, and famine is imposed on Gaza by the State of Israel, this cowardice is unbearable.
Cultural spaces are supposed to be the last places of expression in favor of peace, carrying anti-colonial and anti-fascist ideas. These acts of censorship and self-censorship are worrying and discouraging, as they pose a real threat to Palestinian lives and to our own.
As art workers and citizens, we must ask ourselves what art and culture can still do in the face of such ignominy. Can we continue to produce, show, and critique artworks without taking a clear and explicit stance against this massacre? Without actively working, each according to their means, for the liberation of the Palestinian people and their land? NO.
We want to warmly thank with whom we had co-organized the event and who supported us in our choice.
🇵🇸 FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸
