No more excuses.
No more complicity.
The West’s failure to truly reconcile with its brutal practice of colonial plunder for the sake of capitalist gain is part and parcel of the rise of fascism in the West11. This is not new: we see the same connection between the military and fascist movements, across the West today as well as in Europe’s past12. By normalising increased militarisation, Western institutions, despite their claims of innocence and willful ignorance, are actively sustaining a culture of fascism.
As artists and cultural workers who consciously practice going beyond the norm of military profit, and beyond the center of Western imperialism, we understand that the struggle against fascism and the struggle for liberation of all people is a collective struggle. A wave of resistance and refusal is sweeping through cultural institutions13 as artists, cultural workers and educators are rejecting the brutality that is enabled through hardheaded innocence and an imposition of false neutrality. The ongoing live-streamed Israeli genocide of Palestinians has torn away the façade of Western democracies, revealing the deep economic and political complicity of these states in the Zionist machinery of annihilation.
The choice is clear: stand with artists and the integrity of public culture and art, or stand with the profiteers of war.
The Mondriaan Fund as an institution that serves the public, has a duty to lead, not to follow. You must act now: sever ties with militarized spaces, take an unambiguous stand against militarisation, and fulfil your responsibility to foster a cultural landscape that unites and guarantees a beyond geared towards a liveable future.
This letter is also an invitation to the cultural field in general. We call on all artists, cultural workers, and institutions to add their names and voices to this demand. Together, we can break the cycle of individuation and isolation and build a united front against the artwashing of war.