Strategies of Critique. A Systematic Reconstruction of the Debate on documenta fifteen

During the fifteenth edition of the documenta in 2022, accusations of anti-Semitism were brought forward against the curating collective ruangrupa and various exhibits, leading to a heated debate in the German public. This debate in turn became a cultural-political event with global repercussions.

The project aims to explain the fierceness of the controversy. At the same time, it wants to recall that is was still at times a productive argument from which there is much to learn. To this end, the project will reconstruct the course of the debate in German newspapers and on Twitter, focusing particularly on the ways criticism was expressed: How did various speakers pass judgments, make distinctions, and refer to rights, norms, and opposing viewpoints? In doing so, the project takes up an understanding of a problem that was already prevalent in the debate—namely, that criticism was exercised strategically, that it was systematic, interest-driven, and aimed at effect, i.e that criticism in this debate did not follow a deliberative but a polemical logic and may not have actually said what it meant. For example, accusations were made against criticisms of Israel, alleging that they spread anti-Semitism in coded or indirect ways. Conversely, these accusations themselves were claimed to strategically aim at suppressing legitimate criticism.

By attempting to empirically capture the strategic orientation of critical practices, the project introduces a new approach to research on criticism in the humanities and social science and brings it into dialogue with anti-Semitism studies. It also aims to clarify whether the course of this controversy may have been a fundamental problem of strategically oriented criticism in liberal public spheres in general, rather than an expression of a specifically German way of dealing with anti-Semitism or a polarization dynamic driven by social media. The very impression that others are exercising criticism strategically seems to lead to certain dynamics of debate that conflict with the ideal of a reasoned exchange of opinions prevailing in liberal societies. Since expressions of opinion that might covertly spread anti-Semitism are largely protected under freedom of speech and artistic freedom, they initially provoke a potentially equally strategic “counter-critique” that employs liberal ideals—such as individual freedoms, open discussion, or universalism—for its own purposes.

Thus, this project makes the examination of strategies of critique a central component of a comprehensive historicization of the documenta debate, which generates reflexive knowledge about its contentious issues, captures recurring forms of critique, and opens a space for thought that could enable different courses for future debates.