Palestine-Related Work Vandalized at German Museum
167Jan. 7, 2025
Police in Hamburg are investigating as a hatecrimethe vandalism of a work on view in the group exhibition “In and Out of Place. Land After Information 1992–2024,” at theKunstverein Hamburg. A visitor erased the word “Palestine” from the site-specific installationred earth, blood earth, blood brother earth [kick dirt], 2024, by British artist Phoebe Collings-James. The word was one of four names of conflict-riddled states that had been traced, alongside patterns, images, and other text fragments, in a thin layer of dried pink clay spread on the floor of the gallery containing the installation, across which visitors were invited to walk. The names of the other three besieged locales—Congo, Haiti, and Sudan—remained intact.
“Regrettably, an unknown visitor to the Kunstverein chose to deliberately deface a section of the installation in which the word Palestine appeared,” wrote the institution on social media. “The Kunstverein in Hamburg unequivocally condemns this act of politically motivated vandalism and has reported the damage to the authorities who are investigating it as a hate crime.”
The London-based Collings-James is known for a practice embracing sound, performance, and ceramics and exploring issues of violence, race, sexuality, and cultural origin. “The vandalism was a devastating reminder of the force of support there is for the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” said the artist in a statement. “My artwork invited people to move across it, to consider land and its politics, the violent act of erasure taps into the psyche of all that has sought to destroy and dispossess us.”
The vandalism took place in November. Since then, the work has been restored to its original state. It will remain on view through the exhibition’s closing date of January 12.