"Culture Wars: A Modern Pyrrhic Victory?" Standing Firm on Artistic Freedom Against Left-wing Alarmism and Moral Guardians
Cultural Minister Weimer expresses discontent over allegations of excessive left-wing alarmism.
Taking a hardline stance against self-appointed moral guardians from both left and right, Culture Minister Weimer sounds the alarm on what he terms as left-wing alarmism. The removal of a naked Venus statue from a Berlin office, as Weimer sees it, is an act of "culturally distant ignorance" that attacks artistic freedom and patronizes the viewer.
In an opinion piece for the "Sueddeutsche Zeitung", Weimer lashed out at such intrusions into artistic freedom. "The freedom-hostile intrusiveness of the left has found its aggressive face in cancel culture," Weimer wrote, pointing to the Venus statue's removal as the latest example.
Weimer believes that the simplistic equation of female nudity being inherently sexist and having no place in public life mirrors a Jacobin iconoclasm. In modern terms, the culture minister sees the aggressive responses of radical feminist, postcolonial, eco-socialist outrage culture as the modern incarnation of this creed.
"Versailles at the Galley?"
The bronze statue of Venus Medici was removed from the Federal Office for Central Services and Open Property Matters (BADV) in Berlin, according to "Bild" newspaper reports, following a complaint from the office's equal opportunities officer.
In a society driven by left-wing alarmism, Weimer wrote, anticipatory obedience, patronization, and language guardianship seems like the only remaining resort. However, neither the narrow-minded cultural reflexes of the right and far-right are left out. Weimer referenced the dismissal of a Florida teacher for showing her students Michelangelo's nude David as an example.
"The Obstinate and Peg-legged Pedant"
Both left and right extremists, according to the culture minister, do not trust the freedom of culture or the competence of the citizen to form their own judgment. When the arts are canonized in the name of a new moral terror, not only are the artists censored, but above all, the audience is patronized.
The liberal response, according to Weimer, is not to exert political influence but to defend the freedom of art. "To widen the corridors of the sayable, explorable, and representable, instead of narrowing them," Weimer wrote, advocating for a broader and more inclusive cultural landscape.
Weimer has previously voiced concerns over the dangers of a global cultural war, a conflict not limited to neonationalist dictatorships like China or Russia, but also prevalent in the West.
In response to an incident where a Venus statue was removed from a Berlin office, Culture Minister Weimer criticized the "culturally distant ignorance" as an attack on artistic freedom. He also noted the removal as an example of the "freedom-hostile intrusiveness of the left" in the form of cancel culture.
Weimer further argued against both left and right extremists who do not trust the freedom of culture or the competence of the citizen to form their own judgments. He advocated for defending the freedom of art and creating a broader, more inclusive cultural landscape.
