To Boycott or not to Boycott – Manifesta 10 in Saint Petersburg

You are surely aware of what is going on in Russia today. There were the Olympic Games in Sochi, with all the commotion about slave labour, unimaginably high costs and corruption, and the recent occupation of Crimea, now said to have willingly joined the Russian Federation after a referendum. Before that, there was the news about a law forbidding “homosexual propaganda”, in practice forbidding all public information and education on LGTBQ issues, and, of course, the arrest of the Pussy Riot performance group in 2012. Most recently, the Duma passed a law banning swearing in artistic practices such as music, film and visual art. What is less well-known is that this law also prohibits criticism of the Soviet period and of President Putin. From a western perspective Russia’s actions are incomprehensible and cruel. How is it even possible for an international biennial such as Manifesta to take place in this climate?

The host for this year’s Manifesta biennial, Manifesta 10, is the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. To my knowledge, there have been two international calls to reconsider St. Petersburg as the location for Manifesta 10 because of Russia’s “anti-gay law”. Interestingly enough neither of them were initiated by Russian LGBTQ activists or organisations, but by an Irish curator and the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). This makes me wonder whether we, the West, really have the right to act as the big brother. The West tends always to “know best”, and we are unable to see that there are ways of going about things differently. Still, Russia is definitely violating human rights with this anti-gay law, and who is to protest if not everyone and anyone who recognizes that? Chto Delat?, an artist collective that was pre-invited to work with Manifesta, wrote in a statement that “a boycott focusing on the local attack on LGBT rights will not benefit but rather harm both local civil society as well as the potential audience of contemporary art in Russia”. This reveals the need for international support for and exchanges with the people of Russia – something they would not have if Russia as a country, and international events such as Manifesta, were to be boycotted. Of course, there can be other reasons for the general silence of the local actors, but I think this is one of them.

Though the Manifesta Foundation has been subjected to a lot of criticism for staying in St. Petersburg despite the annexation of Crimea, there has been only one petition, as far as I know, to relocate Manifesta 10 because of it. Chto Delat? is one source of this criticism. The collective addressed the curator of Manifesta 10, Kasper König, in an open letter, in which they expressed their concern about the political situation in Russia. Chto Delat? even wanted to offer a new vision of how Manifesta 10 could continue, despite its partial financial dependency on the Russian government, which is repressing its own people, and now also the people of Ukraine. They pleaded with Manifesta and the Hermitage to raise their voices in support of the anti-war protests in Russia.

more: CummaStudies