Art

Tehran meets Berlin: culture project with the potential for conflict

The collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary art, travels abroad for the first time. Foreign Minister Steinmeier has suggested the project, a Holocaust-cartoon contest brings him in expository.

It seems so, as the nuclear agreement with Iran, the Western countries have triggered a race to favor, and shops. The German mix. Shortly after the conclusion of the agreement, economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel traveled to Tehran. And, now, Chancellor Merkel is, according to the news magazine “der Spiegel” ready to receive the Iranian President Hasssan Rouhani in Berlin, after she had hesitated because of Israel’s hostile attitude of the Mullah regime for a long time. A large cultural-political co-operation project should accompany the approach. But it threatens to become insurmountable stumbling block.

“The Modern from Tehran is coming to Berlin,” declared the Prussian cultural heritage Foundation in the autumn of last year, solemnly, after they had negotiated an agreement with the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) on a spectacular display. Top works of European and American painting from the collection of the former Persian Empress Farah Pahlavi should for the first time since the Islamic Revolution. Not in London, Paris or Rome, but in Berlin. Including works by Claude Monet, Max Ernst and Jackson Pollock. The decision for Germany was at the time as a political Coup seen. The Intention of the Germans was to demonstrate with the exhibition, appreciation, and open Iran.

Art and diplomacy: foreign Minister Steinmeier visits in October 2015, the TMoCA

Holocaust cartoons in Tehran

But even before the first image of Tehran in Berlin has arrived, the Iran something else: the fuel for violent domestic and foreign policy discussions. The Tehran Mullah Regime is organised, namely in the meantime a controversial competition of cartoons. Prizes were awarded to entries representing the Holocaust as invention, and the victims of ridicule. Ironically, Majid Moullanourouzi, the Director of the TMoCA and head of Department in the Iranian Ministry of culture, presented certificates to the Victory. All of this could jeopardise the exhibition project now.

The TMoCA is home to one of the most valuable collections of Western contemporary art

Federal foreign Minister Steinmeier himself was there in October 2015 with the signing of the contract, and praised the conclusion at that time as the “diplomacy of culture”. Now his diploma will be needed the ability to let the diplomacy of the culture of no confrontation because of culture. Whether under such conditions the exhibition project is at all politically tenable, was probably also discussed in the foreign office. At the request of the German wave, it was now, but from there: “Our principle is that we need not less, but more contacts, more exchanges, especially in the field of culture, even if it is sometimes difficult and tedious.” Foreign Minister Steinmeier holds so obvious to the German-Iranian exhibition project. At the same time his Ministry was to the DW clear: “For a denial of the Holocaust in Germany, not a stage.”

Steinmeier in Erklärungsnot

Who do you want to be in Berlin to give a stage, this is the controversial Museum Director Moullanourouzi. However, the exhibition want to bring the German in any case, in the capital of the state so far. The Foreign office refers in this context to the Government’s press conference from 18. May. There, the spokesman for the foreign office said that foreign Minister Steinmeier had strongly condemned the cartoon contest is already in its last Iran trip at the beginning of February and to the government of Iran, the expectation was expressed that the competition does not take place.

That he was now aligned anyway, trust “a great misunderstanding”, said the spokesperson of the Government press conference on 18. May. The Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK), the official Partner of the Tehran Museum, will definitely hold on to the exhibition. Similar to the Federal Foreign office is condemning “any Form of denial of the Holocaust in the strongest possible terms”. However, the exhibition could “the civil society and the liberal, openness to the world, forces in Iran, strut strengths”. The SPK argued against the German wave that the exhibited works speak the “language of freedom and liberality”.

Monika Grütters distancing himself from the Holocaust denials

Funded by the Secretary of state for Culture

In addition to the Federal foreign office and the SPK is also the Minister of state for culture and media (BKM), Monika Grütters is involved in the German-Iranian exhibition project. As your external press Department of Deutsche Welle informed, on request, promotes the BKM, the exhibition with up to 3 million euros, while the Foreign office needs to contribute 500,000 euros. “At that time, denial of the contractual partner was of the Holocaust is not known”, – is said in the opinion. Moreover, it is confirmed: For the Holocaust deniers, it will give of the Minister of state “is never a political support”. However, the BKM can be up to now does not recognize whether it reconsiders the funding commitment after the Holocaust competition.