THE GAME – PLAYING WITH INCLUSION – FESCH.TV

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Press release
Embargoed for release until 21 May 2021, 10:00 p.m.
21 May 2021

Bundeskunsthalle terminates project on inclusion by Cologne laureate immediately prior to planned opening

Act by Bundeskunsthalle is hostile to people with disabilities

A year ago, the Bundeskunsthalle invited the award-winning, mixed-abled DIN A 13 tanzcompany – a recipient of excellence funding from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia – to participate in the exhibition: ‘Dress Code. das Spiel mit der Mode’ [‘DRESS CODE Are You Playing Fashion?’], by the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, and the Kyoto Costume Institute in cooperation with the Bundeskunsthalle.
The stakeholders agreed that the intervention would need to occur within the exhibition itself – a performance alongside the exhibition, or participation in laboratories held simultaneously outside the ‘DRESS CODE Are You Playing Fashion?’ exhibition would not do justice to the principle of inclusion. Following negotiations, confirmation and extensive project progress between the Bundeskunsthalle and the DIN A 13 tanzcompany, the Director Eva Kraus intervened personally and voided the plans shortly before the opening. Shortly before the opening, the direction of the Bundeskunsthalle argued that there had never been any provision for direct intervention in the exhibition by DIN A 13. There were no alternative programs offered, either.

Yet an activist intervention on behalf of people with disabilities by the dance company makes sense in two ways:
First, fashion addresses an area that determines contemporary body and beauty standards while generally singling out and excluding people with disabilities. In addition, this kind of intervention should promote a necessary opening by cultural institutions in matters of inclusion – an urgently needed task to which the Bundeskunsthalle has also publicly committed itself.

Gerda König, Artistic Director of the DIN A 13 tanzcompany and recently the recipient of Cologne Honorary Theatre Award, said: ‘We took part in the exhibition – even though the budget was very small – because we saw it as an opportunity for an exemplary type of inclusion in the museum. It certainly could have served as a role model! Now, with no substantive justification, we are set to be deported back to secondary venues. The idea is to have people with disabilities on hand as an alibi, but they really should stay out of view. In our view, the high-handed, last-minute cancellation, with no outlook for alternative projects, is a clear case of discrimination. Even after the debates in recent months, this is an unworthy course of action – particularly for a federal institution.’