STATEMENT REGARDING THE CANCELLATION OF THE BRIMBORIA INSTITUTE'S EVENT

BY ARTUR ŻMIJEWSKI

I met Tom and Max in Leipzig during the preparation process of 7th Berlin Biennale. We were talking about the Nazi threat in the German East, the slow process of the growth of pro-Nazi tendencies among the German population. Brimboria develops strategies, which could discredit events organized by Nazis. They cooperate with the German Apple Front, which openly interacts with radical right wing groups. They invade their demonstrations in order to decrease their power. They also permanently reflect on the social situation and on the strategies of struggling against the growth of pro-Nazi tendencies.

After the conversation I decided that it was important to invite the Brimboria Institute representatives to present their positions and methodologies in the framework of 7th Berlin Biennale. For the 7th Berlin Biennale they proposed a "non meeting" with Christian Worch – one of the figures from far right groups. There was an idea to touch the evil – not directly – to talk about the threat that radical groups make and about those who struggle against Nazis: Antifa, Brimboria, German Apple Front and so on.

The consequence of the "non invitation" for Worch was that he contacted Tom and Max and expressed his interest to join the event. That's his right in a democratic system, which Germany still is. As I understand the development of the situation, Tom and Max wanted to control the meeting and planned to come with Worch and let him talk after their presentation. There was a moderation expected by Alf Thum. This way the conversation would have been controlled.

This cannot happen because of the decision taken by Gabriele Horn, the director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art. She decided to cancel the event – what shows the limits of curatorial and artistic freedom.

In my opinion Tom and Max are not playing noble people who keep distance to social and political hazard. They are ready to confront themselves with the people who represent even inhuman ideology. But their event was removed from the 7th Berlin Biennale program in the very last moment. They lost symbolic power, which could have supported their effort.

It is difficult to defend the meeting "without a Nazi" because these radicals are against humanity, against democratic and constitutional values. But the cancellation of such an event hits directly people who struggle against radical groups. They cannot rely on the institution – they can just fight on the streets, what in fact was proposed to them during the cancelation meeting in KW. We left them alone with the problem, we will not make our hands dirty through contact with people who represent bad values, we prefer to confirm ourselves how noble and good we are, and how moral our program is.