Keine Haltung, nirgends Gesinnung, null Bedeutung
The article critiques the current state of the art world and broader culture, arguing that right-wing calls for depoliticized art are intensifying while the progressive art establishment silently tolerates a culture war that restricts free expression. It uses the 2025 Met Gala as a prime example, describing the event as a heartless display of wealth and power aligned with Trump-era capitalism, where celebrities and artists perform progressive values while participating in a spectacle sponsored by anti-union figures like Jeff Bezos. The author draws on Hannah Arendt's ethics lectures to suggest that moral norms have collapsed overnight, and that the commercial art world now legitimizes anti-democratic tendencies through its silence.
This matters because it exposes a deep contradiction within the contemporary art scene: institutions and individuals who claim progressive values are complicit in a system that prioritizes money and spectacle over genuine political conviction. The article warns that the erosion of moral and political standards in art and culture is not just a theoretical concern but a real, ongoing shift that could normalize authoritarianism. It challenges readers to recognize that the art world's failure to take a clear stand makes it an accomplice in the very forces it claims to oppose.