City Government of Erfurt Cancels HeART of Gaza Children’s Art Exhibition.

On October 22, 2024, the art exhibition HeART of Gaza was cancelled by order of the city government of Erfurt for being “planned in cooperation with political initiatives.” The exhibition, which was scheduled to open in the pop-up store F11 on October 23, was supposed to show drawings by Palestinian children in which they describe their everyday lives in Gaza.
According to a press release on the official city portal of Erfurt published on October 23, the pop-up store is a “testing ground and laboratory for young companies, founders and anyone who wants to try out a commercial business idea.” It explained that the space was being used by the artist initiative JederKann to present and sell various “works of art” and “handicraft items.” The press release writes that as the city administration is “politically neutral” and the rental agreement prohibits the pop-up store from being used for political purposes, such a political exhibition as HeART of Gaza could not take place.
In an interview with MDR Thüringen, Steffen Linnert, Head of the Economic Department, added that HeART of Gaza was not organized by JederKann, but primarily by the pro-Palestinian groups Erfurt Unsilenced and Jena for Palestine, contravening the prohibition in the rental agreement on third parties using the exhibition space. In the same MDR article, the exhibition team denied that there were political messages in the drawings – rather, they depicted the everyday life of children in Gaza and intended to start conversations with visitors.
In an interview with Etos Media, Erfurt Unsilenced elaborated that some pictures had typical children’s motifs such as family and nature, while others showed houses being bombed. The project was “not political but cultural, as no speeches or lectures were planned.” The exhibition team noted that Ukrainian artists had exhibited in the pop-up store in February 2024, and this cancellation would probably not have happened if the drawings were made by Ukrainian children.
According to evangelisch.de, JederKann continued to occupy the pop-up store and sold its artworks and handicrafts, with the proceeds going towards the support of humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza. HeART of Gaza eventually exhibited on October 26 at Café Nomad in Erfurt, in support of the You Are Not Alone campaign led by Mohammad Timraz, which facilitates the provision of basic necessities and artistic spaces for children and families in Gaza.
The same exhibition, originally scheduled to open on November 20, 2024, at altonale Hamburg, was also canceled. In an Instagram story, altonale, a non-profit cultural organisation, stated that they do not share a “one-sided approach to the tragic conflict in Gaza.” They stated that the reason for the cancellation was to prevent the event from being politically instrumentalized.