Artists and Curators Defend Palais de Tokyo After Patron Pulls Support over “Wokeism”

More than two hundred artists and curators have signed an open letter in support of thePalais de Tokyoafter a longtime benefactor of the Paris museum withdrew her patronage, accusing the institution of “wokeism.” Sandra Hegedüs quit the Amis du Palais de Tokyo patrons group after fifteen years, saying via anInstagrampost that the museum’s current exhibition “Past Disquiet” offered “biased and misleading points of view on the history” of the Israel–Palestine conflict. The show “retraces the histories of political engagement and solidarity of artists within the international anti-imperialist movement from the 1960s through to the 1980s” and centers the concept of “museums in exile,” specifically those of Palestine, Nicaragua, Chile under Pinochet, and South Africa under apartheid. The Brazilian-born Hegedüs wrote that the museum’s “programming appears to be dictated by the defense of ‘causes’—wokeism, anti-capitalism, pro-Palestine etc. Today, it is less a question at the Tokyo Palace of offering diverse, innovative and creatively ambitious artistic approaches [and more about] sticking to an ideology.”

Palais de Tokyo president Guillaume Désanges responded to Hegedüs’s allegations in a statement first published in theArt Newspaper, saying, “As a site of contemporary creation closely connected to current events in the artistic field, like most international cultural institutions the Palais de Tokyo must engage with these often political questions. It should not look to avoid doing so and must instead strive to be a place where artists can express themselves: to be a space for debate, reflection and encounters. Rather than pitting opposing logics against each other or creating new divisions, its mission is to shed light upon, to question and to put into perspective—particularly historical perspective—the current events that are shaping society.”

Désanges additionally noted that he had spoken with Amis du Palais de Tokyo president Philippe Dian, who was firm in his support of the institution, “recalling that the mission of the Amis is to support the Palais, not to pass judgment on its programming.” Désanges further asserted that “far from the polarization of public debate, the Palais de Tokyo presents a diverse program that respects a plurality of points of view whilst working to fulfill its public service mission.”

The open letter, which was initially published by French daily Le Monde on May 13 and is now available on contemporary art platform DCA reads in part, “Like art and artists, our cultural institutions must remain free, or else risk disappearing. To remain free, they must be able to work with the professionalism and peace of mind that allow them to provide the conditions for the confrontation of ideas that is at the heart of their mission.” Among the missive’s signatories are artists Cecile B. Evans, Camille Henrot, and Pierre Huyghe; Chris Dercon, managing director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, and Emma Lavigne, director general of the Pinault Collection. The letter is accompanied by a Change.org petition, which at the time of writing had garnered more than 2,800 signatures.