German Cultural Workers Call for Strike, New Delhi Gallery Expands to Mumbai, and More: Morning Links for January 10, 2024

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STRIKE ALERT. Following the implementation, last Thursday, by Berlin culture senator Joe Chialo of a clause requiring recipients of government arts funding to reject “any form of anti-Semitism,” more than four thousand German cultural workers have signed an open letter. Others are calling for an international strike on the grounds that the clause chills free speech and punishes those who speak out on behalf of Palestinians. The clause defines anti-Semitism in accordance with the controversial definition laid out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2004, which implies “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity”, “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”, “applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

HIGH FIVE! The Lens-based Opale foundation is officially five years old, Le Quotidien de l’Art reports. For its anniversary, the art center – the first in Europe entirely devoted to aborigenal contemporary art – presents a collectively curated show and a brand-new pavilion. The exhibition is called “High Five!”, both words respectively referring to the altitude (1,1400 meters/ 4,500 feet) and the age of the site, while the expression “High Five” introduces the collaboration of 26 Swiss cultural figures, whom founder Bérengère Primat invited to pick each a work from her 1,540-piece collection.

The Digest

New Delhi’s Nature Morte, one of India’s leading contemporary art galleries, has announced the opening of a new outpost in Mumbai later this month. Its roster includes some of the region’s most widely exhibited and commercially successful artists, Bharti Kher, Asim Waqif, Ayesha Singh and Subodh Gupta, whose solo show will inaugurate the soon-to-open location. [The Art Newspaper]

A man living in England, who previously worked for Fountain Studios, in London, was cleaning out his home when he found in his bedside table original scripts for the New York-based TV series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. .The episodes titled “The One with Ross’s Wedding Part I” and “Part II” were exceptionally filmed in the English capital, where one of the leading characters and a Brit are tying the knot. Now he’s putting them up for auction. They’re expected to fetch at least $650. [WSAW-TV]

Pauli Ochi, who runs the namesake gallery in Idaho, got the profile treatment from Maxwell Rabb. Her grandfather, Fred Isao Ochi, was a landscaper who ventured from California during the 1940s to open a sign painting shop in Idaho Falls. Her father, Denis Ochi, established an artist-run space in Boise in 1974. The family moved to the state’s town of Sun Valley. “Everyone’s upbringing is unique, but it was a pretty specific thing to be […] exposed to contemporary art, but then also growing up in [a] town where there’s a really big emphasis on athletics and the outdoors”, she said. [Artsy]

A decade ago, one of Margo McDaid’s pupils was murdered. The primary school teacher immediately quit her job and decided it was time to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an artist. After moving from inner city London to the Kent coast, she promised herself to create at least one painting every day. So far, she has kept that promise and has, under the name Margo in Margate, sold more than 16,000 of her colorful pictures. [BBC]

Musician Brontez Purnell interviewed artist-in-residence fellow Florian Hetz who, like him, went to the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Anegeles. The musician reported that his friend suffered some kind of a brain trauma, back then responsible for lapses in his short-term memory which made him want to begin photo-documentary, “as a form of visual timeline to keep the blur between past and recent present manageable”. [Interview]

The Kicker

PET SHOW. Lyon’s Sucrière, former sugar warehouse turned into an art center, has announced that its current exhibition devoted to French and American photographer Elliott Erwitt (1928-2023) will soon be open to dogs. On 25 January and 8 February, visitors will be allowed, encouraged even, to walk through a selection of 215 black and white photographs with their furry friends. One can only assume that, as a dog lover, Erwitt, who portrayed many canines and recorded various pet shows in the 40’s, would have appreciated the concept. [Beaux Arts]