Entangled Memories of Colonialism and Antisemitism The Scandal of Taring Padi’s “People’s Justice” at Documenta 15 (2022)

This chapter addresses the controversy that followed the unveiling of the artwork People’s Justice at the art festival Documenta 15 in 2022. The large banner by the Indonesian art collective Taring Padi depicts Indonesia’s communist in 1960s and Suharto’s subsequent authoritarian regime. The discovery of two antisemitic figures led to international outrage and critique on the festival and its organizers. This paper argues that the reactions in German media are emblematic of the Historikerstreit 2.0 and Europe’s exclusionist memory politics and how it excludes both Jewish voices and Indonesian memories. It then considers the colonial roots of Indonesia’s antisemitism to critically examine the underlying metaphor of traveling. Lastly, the work is analyzed in the context of Taring Padi’s activist and collaborative method and a transnational visual culture that is not exclusively Dutch or Indonesian in an attempt to think about the proximity