Performance artist Laurie Anderson renounces professorship at Folkwang University as a result of debate on her political stance

On April 1, 2024, Laurie Anderson was due to take up the Pina Bausch Professorship at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Anderson decided to withdraw from the professorship due to pressure from the university regarding her political views.

Laurie Anderson, born 1947 in Illinois/USA, is an interdisciplinary performance artist and musician of international renown. On January 11, 2024, the Folkwang University Essen announced that Anderson had been appointed to the Pina Bausch Visiting Professorship for the summer semester 2024. The interdisciplinary professorship was established in the winter semester 2022/23 and is a cooperation between the university and the Pina Bausch Foundation. Laurie Anderson would have been the second appointment following Marina Abramović.

On January 23, the blog Ruhrbarone published an article accusing Anderson of having close ties to BDS and emphasizing that she had signed the "Letter against Apartheid" in 2021. The blog is known, among other things, for triggering debates around accusations of anti-Semitism, defamation and the associated silencing in the cultural sector as well as for publishing inflammatory anti-Palestine posts ("Transform Gaza to Garzweiler"). The letter cited in the article was written by Palestinian artists, writers and their allies; in light of the violence against Palestinians in May 2021, it called for a ceasefire, an end to violence and an end to global support for Israel and the Israeli military.

For their article, Ruhrbarone also requested a statement from the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the article, the response from a spokesperson stated that the freedom of art and science is a "higher good", which is why they refrain from "controlling the opinions of artists and scholars", but that Anderson had "nevertheless" been asked by the university to explain “whether she would stand by her comments even after the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023 and whether she would express the same views today".

On January 26, the university finally published a press release announcing Anderson's withdrawal from the professorship. According to the university: “It has now become apparent that, in 2021, Laurie Anderson publicly supported the Palestinian artists’ ‘Letter Against Apartheid’ appeal, which, among other things, takes up calls for boycotts by the anti-Israel BDS movement. The university engaged in talks with Laurie Anderson and the Pina Bausch Foundation to discuss the extent to which Anderson would be able to carry out her planned artistic project at the Folkwang University of the Arts and ensure uninterrupted, focused work at this time."

Anderson consequently decided not to enter into a debate about her political stance, but to withdraw from the professorship as a result: “For me the question isn’t whether my political opinions have shifted. The real question is this: Why is this question being asked in the first place? Based on this situation I withdraw from the project”, according to the same press release. Anderson told the NYT what she learned from the situation was that she did not want this kind of sponsorship: “If I’d known they were going to ask things like that, I never would have accepted that job in the first place.”

As of the current writing, the professorship has not yet been filled.