“I call on the Foundazione to remove all of the elements of this installation. Linking the themes of money and power to Jews and Israel is pure antisemitism, however artful it professes to be,” EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin.
(Brussels 13 September) A number of Jewish and Israeli visitors to the Fondazione Prada in Venice have been left offended at an exhibition with clear antisemitic undertones that is on display.
The Fondazione is exhibiting an installation by Christoph Büchel, entitled “Monte di Pietà” which, according to the Fondazione “is a deep dive into the notion of debt as the root of human society and the primary vehicle by which political and cultural power is exercised.”
The installation includes documents, historical and contemporary artworks related to property history, credit and finance. Amongst these are previously classified documents from the British Government relating to ‘war bonds’ loaned to the then state of Palestine, there are also two bags of cement with Hebrew writing on them amid mangled concrete, and a monitor displaying images of the Gaza and Lebanese borders, as well as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, behind this monitor is a postcard in Hebrew with Lord Balfour’s head, and the November date in which the Balfour declaration was signed.
The Brussels-based European Jewish Association, that represents hundreds of Jewish Communities across the continent, and which is actively engaged in combatting antisemitism, was made aware of the content by numerous sources – all Jewish – who felt that the exhibition had all the hallmarks of antisemitism, and rehashed tropes of powerful Jews, and that the concrete suggested that Israel was profiting from destruction. Those who saw the exhibition also felt that that the war bonds documents and the Balfour postcard suggested the exhibition sought to link the creation of the State of Israel as a sordid, secret and financial matter.
The Chairman of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin said today in a statement,
“The parts of this installation that bring Israel into focus are clearly suggesting that Jews and Israelis have the money and the power, and that any wars whether Gaza, Lebanon or in the creation of the state of Israel have all been to the Jewish financial interest.
“This installation, however subtle it may try to be, is simply rehashing some of the oldest antisemitic tropes. What makes this particular installation even more sinister is that it attempts to wrap these tropes under the mantle of “art”, for people to stop and consider and ponder. It seeks to convey an idea that is antisemitic at its very root, in the same one that one stops and absorbs a famous painting.
“This is extremely dangerous and irresponsible given the record rises of antisemitism as a result of the October 7th Massacre and the ongoing war in Gaza.
“I cannot understand how the Fondazione Prada failed to see the clear antisemitic tropes on display in this installation. Whether they did or did not is neither here nor there, every Jew and Israeli who saw the installation knew exactly what it was conveying because we have seen it throughout our history.
“I call on the Foundazione to remove all of the elements of this installation. Linking the themes of money and power to Jews and Israel is pure antisemitism, however artful it professes to be.”
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