Hundreds of Artists Decry Digital Art Show in Germany Funded by Controversial Data Firm

Walter Smerling, a German curator who previously faced controversy last year for the exhibition “Diversity United,” is under fire once again, this time because a digital art show that he organized in Leipzig received was sponsored by Palantir, a data analytics company that has controversially aided in governmental surveillance.

The show, titled “Dimensions — Digital Art since 1859,” is currently on view at the Pittlerwerke Leipzig. Its initial announcement did not disclose the Palantir funding. Süddeutsche Zeitung reported news of the sponsorship in March.

Some 600 artists, art workers, and intellectuals signed an open letter condemning the show. They demanded, among other things, “the development of ethical guidelines for the financing and promotion of art exhibitions,” along with more art funding from the city of Leipzig, which would lessen dependence on “toxic sponsorship.”

The letter writers point out that Leipzig spent 185,576 euros on art funding in 2021. The artists claim that Palantir’s contribution for the “Dimensions” show could be more than double that.

The open letter was instigated by artists Charlotte Eifler, Su Yu Hsin, Francis Hunger, Gabriel S. Moses, and Alexa Steinbrück. Signatories include artists Hito Steyerl, Candice Breitz, Olia Lialina, Nancy Baker Cahill, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Peggy Ahwesh, Lawrence Lek, and !Mediengruppe Bitnik, as well as the curator Anselm Franke.

Palantir, founded by Peter Thiel, has recently faced legal trouble in Germany. The country’s high courts have issued new guidelines that roll back how police forces can use Palantir technology to surveil citizens.

The open letter suggests that Palantir used their sponsorship of “Dimensions” to “artwash” the company’s reputation in Germany, noting that Palantir was given “a substantive podium” during a symposium related to the show.

“If, like Palantir, your hands appear dirty or at least your image seems tarnished, one redeeming way to attract public attention would be to sponsor an art exhibition,” the letter reads. “The principle, epitomized by the gas company Gazprom or the pharmaceutical company Sackler, is also known as ‘Art Washing’.”

Palantir is notorious in the United States for acting as a major partner in the NSA’s spying activities, as shown by the 2013 Edward Snowden leak, as well as for powering ICE’s search for undocumented individuals and the LAPD’s predictive policing. Currently, the company is trying to grow its influence in Europe. A new contract was recently inked the United Kingdom’s NHS, and ties between Germany’s police forces and Palantir have also deepened.

However, representatives Palantir pushed back how the letter writers characterized the company’s work.

“The letter suggests that ‘Palantir is a company whose main business is the surveillance of individuals.’ This is factually incorrect,” wrote a Palantir representative. 

“Palantir is a software, not a data company. Unlike many tech companies, our business model is not based on the monetization of personal data. We do not collect, sell, or store personal data. We provide software that enables organizations to process data they already lawfully have. A core component of our mission is protecting and promoting ethical uses of data, including fundamental rights to privacy and civil liberties through rigorous data protection. Towards this end, Palantir has invested in a dedicated in-house Privacy and Civil Liberties (PCL) engineering team.”

The signatories of the open letter were disturbed not just by Palantir’s funding of “Dimensions” but also the content of the show itself, which they said failed to account for critiques of the digital, insofar as emerging technologies are tied to surveillance, warfare, and underpaid labor in the Global South. Palantir further commented that they did not have a say in the curation of the show.

“The goal of the exhibition was to create a room for an open debate about the role that technology plays in society. We welcome critical conversations. But a conversation requires at least two sides. The title of the letter is: ‘Why is Palantir sponsoring the Dimensions art exhibition in Leipzig?’ However, none of the authors have reached out to us directly to find out,” wrote the Palantir representative. “We would welcome if people spoke with, not simply about us.”

Smerling faced criticism last year for his show “Diversity United,” which received support from German right-wing politicians and from the Russian state. Even as tensions between Ukraine and Russia heightened, Smerling defended his choice to work with Russia.

The curator was also decried when the city of Berlin gave him free access to a new art space in the once abandoned Tempelhof airport, giving his team 1 million euros in subsidies while allegedly refusing to compensate artists, though a spokesperson for Smerling said this claim by protestors was incorrect, the show was self funded. Amid controversy over this and the “Diversity United” show’s funding, some artists in the exhibited dropped out.

According to the letter about “Dimensions,” these scandals prevented Smerling from organizing new exhibitions in Berlin, hence his decision to curate a show in Leipzig.

“Numerous artists present in the exhibition take part in ongoing conversations about digital art. Hence the statement that Dimensions presents art that merely “pretends” to participate in discourse is demonstrably false. Moreover, we believe that art is always an invitation to participate in a conversation. The exhibition itself is an invitation to engage on critical questions about the impact digital technologies have on our everyday lives,” said Smerling in a written comment to ARTnews. “The companies sponsoring the exhibition do not ‘evade public scrutiny.’ To the contrary, the mere fact that they are sponsoring this exhibition demonstrates that they are open to public scrutiny and both sponsors publicly emphasized their hope that the exhibition will be a forum for critical debate and discussion. The open letter in general contains numerous contentious claims, and openly questions the ethics of both the Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur and the sponsors of the exhibition without, however, making any effort to engage with either directly – an attitude that I find difficult to comprehend.”

Update 5/24/23 10:51 AM: This article was amended to include a comment from Walter Smerling.