A qualitative summary of the media of Olu Oguibe's debate on "The Aliens and Refugees Monument" (2017) in Kassel, Germany

Essai , 2022 , 14 Pages , Note: 1,3

Art - Installations / L’art moderne

Among the participating artists of the Documenta addressing migration and drawing attention to the international postcolonial past was the Nigerian-American artist Olu Oguibe, who erected an obelisk with the inscription "I was a stranger and you took me in" on the Königsplatz in Kassel. With this inscription he was referring to the Book of Matthew in order to commemorate all victims of migration and their host societies. This essay wants to highlight Oguibe's debate on "The Aliens and Refugees Monument."

Introduction:

Since 2007, media reports of extremely aggressive actions by right-wing extremists against migrants, refugees or those who want to help them have been increasing in Germany. A place that is particularly often brought into the public eye is the central German city of Kassel. Beginning with the murder of Halit Yozgat (2006) by the neo-Nazi underground terrorist group NSU to the murder of the christian democratic president Walter Lübcke (2019), migrants, refugees and their supporters are repeatedly victims of right-wing extremist groups. These conditions have also created a crisis in the overall quality of life and the inner-city security of foreigners and citizens of Kassel. Although Germanys constitution on article 3 (Bundestag, 2022) strengthens the right of minorities, right-wing crimes are often not adequately investigated and held accountable. As a result new crimes follow and the number of politically motivated crimes and acts of violence with a right-wing extremist background increases (statista, 2022).

For this reason, one of the most important global art festivals the documenta, drew attention to new actions in 2017. Under the title "Learning from Athens", the 14th edition of the festival followed the intention to address the failure of the worldwide refugee policy after 2015 through contemporary art practices by artists who either have a history of flight themselves, address migration or draw attention to the international postcolonial past (documenta, 2022). Among the participating artists was the Nigerian-American artist Olu Oguibe, who erected an obelisk with the inscription "I was a stranger and you took me in" on the Königsplatz in Kassel (documenta14, 2022). With this inscription he was referring to the Book of Matthew in order to commemorate all victims of migration and their host societies. Furthermore he wanted to manifest the city of Kassel in translating the inscription into the four most spoken languages of the city. A special frame for this was the floor of the object, that was left empty to leave room for the languages of the communities that will migrate to Kassel in the future.

But when the obelisk was erected, Olu Oguibe and the monument itself quickly became the victim of a public debate. At first it started with a debate about the location on the monument after documenta14, but later it turned to a discussion over xenophobia.

The debate started by the right-wing conservative party AFD (Alternative for Germany), who, when erecting the monument (Images 1,2,3,4), claimed that the monument allegedly did not represent the city correctly (HNA, 2018). While a few media outlets tried to report informative about the conflict, other media outlets in Germany and the US tried to publish the truth story and sharply condemn the statements of the AFD. In order to clarify if these media outlets helped to call for a more peace oriented solution of the conflict the following essay tries to find out whether alternative media made a stronger peace oriented reporting than the mainstream media. For this reason the following main research question arises: „How did the media reported about the case of Olu Oguibe after documenta 14 and was there a stronger condemnation of the debate in alternative media?"

The clarification of this question is particularly important as Olu Oguibe is a representative of a vulnerable group and his case stands for many who feel exposed to the media when they advocate change to the current situation of migrants and refugees worldwide.

Furthermore the articles manifest a important debate in politically difficult years in Germany.

Historical and cultural Background of the art object and the debate

Since decades the city of Kassel in Germany has not only been the venue for one of the most important art festivals, the documenta, it is and had always been the central location for accommodating diverse nationalities. For this reason, the most commonly spoken languages seen on the monument are: Arabic, English, German and Turkish.

Beginning with the major guest worker movement in Germany during the 60ies and 70ies Kassel became an important city for Turks as it offered them the chance to live and work in the country through so called Anwerbeabkommen. The organization and costs for travel, payment and possible family reunification were regulated in such agreements (Herbert, 2001). Due to a weakening economy and the oil crisis, the federal government decided at the end of 1973 to stop recruiting for all countries (Herbert, 2001). But this had no effect on the guest workers already living in the country (Herbert, 2001). Since Kassel is an important industrial location in Germany and guest workers were needed here, many stayed in Kassel and brought their families to them. As a result, the population of Turkish speakers in Kassel increased and Turkish became one of the most widely spoken languages of the city.

Another relevant language in Kassel is Arabic, because the city offered itself as an initial reception center for approximately 3500 refugees from Syria in the awake of the 2015 refugee crisis (HNA, 2015). In this crises Europe was and still is particularly affected, since every day hundreds, even thousands of the 3 million Syrians make their way to various countries in Europe (Bilge, 2017). This is why Angela Merkel, the former German chancellor, promised the refugees from Syria a special support (Bundesregierung, 2015). This is mainly the reason why according to the council of Europe during October 2015, approximately 1000 Syrian refugees arrived in Berlin every day (Council of Europe:2015, Bilge: 2017). The result was, that Berlin had to face 30 000 refugees seeking for asylum, that were in need of resources such as food, shelter and health care (Council of Europe: 2015, Bilge: 2017). Because the amount was such as high, the government decided to divide all refugee families into several German cities in order to stabilize the alarming situation. These cities were called Zweitaufnahmeeinrichtungen. As Kassel was in a good regional position with a lot of empty apartments the district president of the region Hessen, Walter Lübcke supported the government, too and brought many refugees to Kassel (HNA 2015). As a result the number of Arabic and English speakers in the city increased, too. Furthermore the language English is mainly spoken in the city, because since 1951 Kassel is the venue for one of the most important worldwide art exhibitions which invites international visitors and artist every five years to the large art festival documenta ( documenta, 2022 ).

Since Kassel is an important meeting point for refugees, foreign worker, international artists and local citizens, the Nigerian-American artist Olu Oguibe wanted to address these nationalities in particular in honoring them for living together in tolerance (youtube­documenta 14 artist Olu Oguibe and The Obelisk. 2022). With the golden inscription „I was a stranger and you took me in“ the artwork “The Aliens and Refugees Monument” (2017) was erected as a art in public space project , which can be seen and understood by most of the citizens. In principal the inhere discussed monument describes a tall, square pillar tapering upwards with a blunt, pyramid-shaped top (Figure 1,2,3,4) that is architectural known as obelisk. Obelisks have their origins in Africa (youtube-documenta 14 artist Olu Oguibe and The Obelisk, 2022). Where the shadow of the Obelisk was able to determined the daily routine of the ancient Egypt society. For this reason the monument became a symbol of central meeting point. This is why Olu Oguibe decided that the form of the monument he planned for documenta14 and for Kassel could only be designed as an obelisk (youtube-documenta 14 artist Olu Oguibe and The Obelisk. 2022). Another important element of this art work for Oguibe was the venue. As the city of Kassel firstly offered itself as refuge for refugees of the French Huguenots in the 17th century, it was very important for the artist to erect the monument on the Königsplatz (youtube-documenta 14 artist Olu Oguibe and The Obelisk. 2022). This place not only serves as an inner city meeting point it was also designed by Simon Louis du Ry, whose grandparents found shelter in Kassel, when they were persecuted in France for their calvinist faith.

All these fragments of the history of the place, the history of the pier and the backstory of the languages on the monument are important elements to correctly interpret the work “The Strangers and Refugees Monument” (2017) and to understand the public debate about the artist. Oguibe wanted to refer to these histories in order to emphasize the original African idea of the obelisk and to appeal to a humanity towards war victims and refugees. This is why the obelisk can be understood as a art work, that affirms the special timeless, universal principles of caring for all those who have been persecuted and for those who have had to seek refuge (documenta14/Königsplatz, 2022). Furthermore, The Strangers and Refugees Monument (2017) draws also attention to Oguibe's own experiences as a child surviving the Biafra War and as a refugee coming to the USA during the end of 1979 (documenta14/Königsplatz, 2022).

Nonetheless, since the internationally renowned arts festival and the accommodation of many nationalities started, Kassel has also been part of many inner-city struggles. This is mainly because of many locals, who see modern artists, refugees or migrants responsible for noise disturbance, traffic pollution or unusual aesthetics, which they describe as irritating or disturbing (Lehning, 2020). It was the same with the discussed obelisk, especially at the beginning and the end of documenta14. The debate about the obelisk mainly started by the right-wing conservative party AFD (Alternative for Germany), who, when the monument (Images 1,2,3,4) was erected, claimed that the monument is "disfigured art“ (HNA, 2018). Although the art work remained on the Köningsplatz during the art festival until October 2017, the city did not wanted to leave the artwork on the historical important place Königsplatz. For this reason the mayor of Kassel, Christian Geselle insisted on finding another place (HNA, 2018). The reason he gave to the press was that the space should offer enough space for future works of art of the documenta, and although the square accommodates no other monuments or urban art projects, Geselle insisted on his point of view (deutschlandfunk-kultur, 2018). This is why the Obelisk was removed in a secret action on the night of the celebrations for the Day of German Unity (HNA, 2018). This happened despite the fact that hundreds of people from Kassel - including the former German finance minister Hans Eichel (SPD) - had demonstrated in Kassel to keep the Oguibe obelisk in the city (deutschlandfunk-kultur, 2018). Subsequently, a previously started crowdfunding campaign made it possible to purchase the work of art with a collection volume of 126,000 Euros and thus made it possible for the work of art to be kept in Kassel. However, Geselle continued to claim that the current location did not correspond to the wishes of the population and had the obelisk stored temporarily (deutschlandfunk-kultur, 2018). What had begin with a debate about the location ended with a debate on xenophobia, because while Geselle thought his secret action was the best way to solve the problem, the AFD used this action for their benefit and tweeted: „we opened a bottle of Champagne! The clearing of the obelisk is a true success for the AFD at Kassel“ (deutschlandfunk-kultur, 2018). After reading this comment further discussions in the media appeared with the result, that the artist and the mayor of Kassel started to talk again. And although Oguibe and the Head of Culture of the Region Susanne Völker previously spoken out vehemently against another location, the artist and mayor agreed on a new location for the obelisk in the center of Kassel only a few 100 meters away from the original place Königsplatz (HNA, 2018).

In order to clarify which media outlets made the strongest contribution in this complex process of keeping the artwork in the city the following method will be used.

Method:

As previously mentioned, the fall of the Olu Oguibe artwork shows a public debate in the media after the obelisk was removed in a secret operation in 2018. Whatever side people were on, the reaction raised the general question: how did the media cover the secret action, and was there a stronger condemnation of the action in alternative media after October 2019? In order to analyze this more closely, a qualitative table of contents according to Philipp Mayring (Mayring, 2015) is used as a method. For this reason Newspaper articles that focus on the discussed art object or the secret action itself after the object was removed in 2018 serve as material. The text of this articles indicates the direction and will be evaluated in a form of summarized content analysis. On this basis, a manageable corpus of the entire material of the discussed obelisk will be created, in order to correctly interpret the results with the help of a coding system, that describes the categories: alternative media and mainstream media. These are assigned to subcategories labeled positive, negative and neutral. In the positive category, the article contains benevolent or praising words and adjectives about the action such as: „brave, sensational or surprising ect.“, in order to describe the secret action of the obelisk. For the "Negative" category, attributes such as „controversial, insensitive, alarming ect.“ are searched in the text. The Neutral category describes content that does not have any of these attributes.

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• Université: Charles University in Prague (Journalismus und Kommunikation)
• Cours: media and migration
• Note: 1,3
• Année de publication: 2022
• Pages: 14
• N° de catalogue: V1352535
• ISBN (PDF): 9783346866929
• ISBN (Livre): 9783346866936
• Langue: anglais
• mots-clé: oguibe, aliens, refugees, monument, kassel, germany