When the Fusion Festival starts next Wednesday, 70.000 people will gather at a former Soviet air force base two hours north of Berlin. I haven’t been for a few years (because, y’know), but I still love the place. Tickets are far cheaper than commercial festivals, but everyone had to participate in a lottery six months ago, as demand is so high for »vacation communism«.

Since 1997, the abandoned hangers have hosted music, dancing, and art – and since this is the Left, there has been no end of criticism. Too white, too hetero, and cultural appropriation. As nd reported last year, there was even a strike by festival workers. Some call the gathering in Lärz an apolitical, drug-fueled Soliparty for the subcultural Left. Fusion does try to be a political space, with lefty workshops, international guests, and even a stage known as Arab Underground.

In February, the organizers – known as Kulturkosmos or just the Central Committee – put out a newsletter dedicated entirely to the war in Gaza. They defined two “red lines” for anyone who wanted to party with them: There would be no “glorification of Hamas” and “we expect, with all solidarity for the Palestinian cause, Israel’s right to exist to be indisputable.” This is in line with the pro-Israel positions held by virtually all German institutions.

As international artists and intellectuals have been uninvited from events, Germany’s cultural scene is becoming increasingly isolated – was Fusion also getting sucked into this German bubble? Pro-Palestinian groups called for boycotts – and surprisingly, these were effective. Lots of Fusionistas come from abroad, after all.

In May, Kulturkosmos published a “follow up” to their previous statement, trying to free themselves “from our German perspective”: “Many missed a third red line, which names the war in Gaza as ‘genocide’ and the Israeli occupation policy as ‘apartheid’ with a clear demarcation against all those who support, negate or trivialise this. Here we have indeed demarcated one-sided.”

Fusion says it aims to create a “space in which Jews, Muslims, Palestinians and Israelis can feel as safe and welcome as possible.” This highlights the main contradiction of the German Zeitgeist: While politicians claim that their aim is “protecting Jews”, they have actually launched a totally unprecedented wave of censorship and repression against Jewish academics, artists, and activists, who are vastly overrepresented in the pro-Palestine movement.

The taz, a formerly left-wing newspaper, fears the Fusion Festival will be damaged by the “authoritarian tendencies of a new generation”. Indeed, as we’ve watched history’s first live-streamed genocide on social media, anti-imperialist sentiment has spread among the world’s youth, especially in the Anglophone countries. It’s not just young people, though: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, have all determined that Israel is practicing apartheid. The German state, with its history of multiple genocides, claims to know better than many others in the world – and a section of the German Left is aligning with their government.

This taz author wonders: “Can any other state’s right to exist be debated, except for the Jewish one?” Well. Leftists generally question the right of every capitalist state to exist. In the past, the taz itself has written in support of the armed struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa or the dictatorship in El Salvador and questioned the “right to exist” of these states. They supported anti-colonial movements such as the ANC, which has always been pro-Palestinian, and collected over four million German marks in their Arms for El Salvador fundraising campaign.

Many older German former leftists are baffled by young people defending the same positions they held in their youth. “The propagandists in Moscow and Beijing, who have long been creating chaos with disinformation about the Gaza war, are patting themselves on the back”, writes the taz author. With this conspiratorial and nationalistic thinking he sounds like an AfD politician, griping about those crazy kids with their postcolonial studies and their TikTok.

German “Solidarity with Israel” is often just a liberal veneer for very traditional racism. Fusion looked like it was sliding in this direction – and with the help of some international comrades, pulled back from this German consensus. Good. If I didn’t have a small child, and I had a ticket, I would be there with my keffiyeh.

This is a mirror of Nathaniel’s red flag column for Neues Deutschland

Hi there. Thanks for agreeing to talk to us. Could you start by briefly introducing yourselves?

MC: My name is Mark Curran, and I’m an activist, artist and educator. I’ve lived in Berlin for almost 21 years and also work in Ireland.

CG: I’m Clare Gallagher. I am a senior lecturer in Northern Ireland and I’m also an artist.

Could you say something about the exhibition in which you were supposed to exhibit?

MC: It is called Changing States and officially the largest group exhibition of contemporary photographic art from Ireland ever exhibited. It’s part of a year long Government of Ireland cultural program in Germany called Zeitgeist24. It was curated by the Photo Museum Ireland, IKS Düsseldorf and the Haus am Kleistpark in Berlin.

It is looking at ideas of identity, post-colonial history – how things have shifted economically, socially, and politically on the island of Ireland. It is a significant show of contemporary work.

CG: There were three themes – political landscapes, notions of home, and changing identities. It’s very hard to ignore Palestine, when themes like these were directly identified by the exhibition.

MC: When you grow up in Ireland, you’re aware of the anti-colonial, anti-imperialist struggle in Ireland, you’re aware of the struggles in South Africa and Palestine. 100 years ago, Britain said that Palestine was to be ‘a second Ireland’. The long legacy of the identification between the struggles has been implicit, if not explicit. 

I’ve been involved around the issue of justice and liberation in Palestine for decades. And in Germany, you’re aware of the belligerent repression, criminalization, the sort of brutal violence used against anybody who shows support for Palestine. But since October there’s been a shift. It’s just come down like a hammer.

Witnessing that violence weekly, including again this past weekend, where we saw Palestinians, Jewish brothers and sisters getting arrested, as well as children and other activists who were peacefully demonstrating. It was clear for months that unless there was a ceasefire, there was no way we could contribute to an exhibition. It is important to note that Kate Nolan, one of the other artists involved and myself, had ongoing communication with Photo Museum Ireland for several months regarding the ongoing repressive situation. 

Germany has a central role and complicity in the genocide in Gaza and the violence in the occupied West Bank. It’s the second largest supplier of weapons. The arguments about German Staatsräson made it clear that this was going to make it problematic. There are claims of freedom of speech without restriction. This is definitely not the case in Germany and does not apply equally.

CG: I’m from the North of Ireland, and I grew up during the Troubles with the really difficult legacy of colonialism. We felt very isolated in the North. We recognize some of those same struggles in other places around the world, like South Africa, or Palestine. 

Through Palestine we see ourselves as part of something bigger than us and not just this problematic corner on the edge of Europe. So Palestine means a lot to us.

What you’re doing is part of the ‘Strike Germany’ initiative. Could you say a couple of things about Strike Germany?

MC: This is a call by cultural producers who have witnessed both the brutalizing of activists and the cancelling, silencing and repression of other cultural producers in Germany. In some cases, people are being cancelled just for calling a ceasefire, to stop killing children. Palestinian and Jewish brothers and sisters who have spoken out have and are being cancelled. 

The call is an act of solidarity, to acknowledge this situation. Who gets to speak? Who gets to show? Who gets to express a position? And who doesn’t. This is deeply problematic, undemocratic, it’s repressive, and it’s racist.

CG: The first three of us who withdrew from the exhibition are academics. When we teach we’re talking about how to work ethically, and setting an example for people who have a bit less privilege because they’re earlier in their careers. It’s really important that we lead with this. There’s layers of significance in how we conduct ourselves.

There has been a huge devastation of education in Gaza. It shows in so many ways how we’re all connected, and that we can’t isolate ourselves and silence what we do for expediency or our careers. It’s so incredibly important to do this.

I’ve spoken about Strike Germany with some friends who are artists. They support the campaign and say that it’s great that international artists are boycotting Germany. At the same time, they live in Germany, they work here and exhibit here. Germany is their livelihood. What can German-based artists do without putting themselves out of business?

MC:  I can appreciate and understand this but perhaps, there’s a need now to take a position. As Clare said, there’s also a need to acknowledge the younger and emerging artists who joined the boycott. For them there’s more of a potential cost. That’s incredibly brave. I won’t speak for them but imagine they have had to consider how it may affect relationships or possible future opportunities. 

There’s also a moral imperative in terms of what we’re witnessing. There are 20,000 artists in Berlin, but when I go to the demonstrations every week, while some definitely are present, I wonder where most of those artists are. Where are the people who describe themselves as activists and radicals who are bound up in the struggle for Palestine?

People say “Oh, I wouldn’t have stood by in the 1930s. I would have stood up”. Well now, this is the moment. I’m constantly amazed and in some ways really disappointed when so many with privilege and legal status remain silent. At every protest, I see people that I know – who maybe don’t have full status in Germany, but show up every week while others with German and EU passports are nowhere to be seen.

We’re witnessing a genocide. So it’s hard not to judge them, but it’s really important to say that it’s never too late. Come to the protest next week. Show up. Use your privilege to use your body as a means to support, walk with and protect someone, who may have less legal privilege. Show solidarity.

CG:  I would just add that we can feel quite isolated when we think about taking action. But when we start to make these actions of solidarity, it’s incredibly supportive. We feel that we’re part of something. 

When each of us made a statement that we were withdrawing from the exhibition, we got a huge amount of messages of support. People recognised what we were doing. It’s really daunting to do, but it’s much, much better to be in that expression of solidarity.

MC: We discovered too that the institutions, who organised the exhibition reprinted the complete catalogue a week before the show opened. All the artists who withdrew from the show were removed, and there is no reference to the withdrawal. 

This was the same week that the Republic of Ireland recognized the State of Palestine. It’s not obviously the same level, but the institutions in some ways are mimicking the strategy of silencing, of erasure by the German state. There has been little or no dialogue in a meaningful way. That saddens me. 

CG: There was originally going to be a statement on the wall and in the catalogue addressing the fact that a number of artists had withdrawn. Then some backtracking happened. This was really sad for an exhibition which is about contested territories, the politics of home and place and Ireland being connected to places further afield from our isolated island. 

It is really sad to have been so comprehensively removed from it, rather than to acknowledge that as artists, we’re part of that community, not that our voices shouldn’t be heard.

How would you react to the argument that if anyone needs art, and particularly political art, at the moment, it’s people in Germany, and that by striking you’re just giving over the artistic sphere to the right wing?

CG: I understand that argument. But that’s just feeding a status quo, which is very comfortable. And often we have to make things uncomfortable for there to be change. When we go on strike, we stand on picket lines and have difficult conversations with students about why we’re outside the university, and not inside the university teaching. 

But it’s only through doing these difficult, uncomfortable things that we drive enough attention to the situation or provoke conversation about it, because otherwise it just ticks along. 

MC: I hate to say this but it’s a white, liberal middle class response to ask why you can’t engage and that it’s more complex. But I think we’ve reached beyond that point. It’s about positioning, about making a statement. It’s a small statement to make, but critically, it is an act of solidarity. 

How have other artists responded to you withdrawing from the exhibition?

MC: Most have been incredibly supportive and understanding the rationale. Some less so. There is resonance with what happened at the time of the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. Can you change things from within by maintaining your presence? This was shown to be a completely failed strategy. There comes a point where you have to make that decision and take a position. 

Are there plans for similar actions like withdrawal for exhibitions?

CG: I don’t know about Germany, but in Ireland and Britain there are campaigns around sponsorship for writing and music festivals which are sponsored by Barclays and others with links to the genocide. Their sponsorship of Latitude prompted a lot of musicians to leave. The Hay literary festival has changed their sponsorship because so many writers dropped out. People in the Arts are good at taking a stand, even at cost to themselves.

MC: Musicians are pulling out of particular festivals, like recently in Hamburg. I’ve also been trying to contact some writers who weren’t aware of Strike Germany. You can actively go out and try raise awareness of the campaign, including like with this interview, and also about the weekly violence we witness on the streets of Berlin. Just this weekend, I had an English friend who was aware of the situation through material I had shown him, but when he was in Schönhauser Allee, he was shocked at the level of police violence, provocation and intimidation that we witnessed. 

We were walking beside this Jewish man, who was the first person we saw arrested by the police. For my friend, the world was turned upside down. In Germany they don’t seem to see the difference between Zionism and Judaism. Well, maybe they do, but it’s just constant that you’re walking with Jewish friends and they and you are being accused of being antisemitic.

Do you think there’s a specific way in which you can react artistically to Palestine? You’ve talked about going to demonstrations and withdrawing, which is important but feels a little negative. Is there a positive way in which artists can respond to what’s happening in Palestine?

CG: There’s artists’ groups like Artists Against Genocide which are really, really active. People are learning Palestinian embroidery, sharing skills. It’s all a way of constructing something in that absence in our own ad hoc way. This is immediate and often as artists we may work much more slowly, and with more reflection. This is a way of working which isn’t probably our typical way, but it is what we’re doing.

MC: The Irish Bloc Berlin, who I am involved with, are organising a Solidarity Céilí this weekend to fundraise for Gaza, where there will also be Palestinian artists. We use whatever little platform we may have to raise awareness, be there, and show support.

If I’m honest, I have lost friends, colleagues, artists who have unfollowed me on social media, as have museum directors, photo editors, gallerists etc., but I’ve made a whole new network of artists, activists and friends. It brings great clarity, which is equally important in terms of positioning. And that is also why, while it may seem negative, withdrawing from the show has also been empowering. 

Hopefully, there’s going to be artists who will read this interview. Certainly, there’ll be people who consume Art. What can they do to support you or to join with you in increasing the artistic response?

MC: People have to make themselves aware, to educate themselves, you know, go read a book. We can give recommendations. 

In terms of artists, they need to show up. We’re at a position where, as people say, Palestine is going to save us all. Clare mentioned already that it’s all connected. Step up, be present, be supportive, show solidarity. Showing up is an extension of one’s being, one’s ethic, one’s moral compass.

It’s also about the world, because we can’t normalise this. We must see what is legally happening both internationally and in Germany every day. Lawyers here have told me that the authorities are literally interpreting the law, sometimes daily and definitely in terms of protest. They’re the harbingers of the future. This is something you might think is way over there, but this is all about all of us, about here and now and recognising that is critical.