Artists voice support for Palais de Tokyo amid ‘wokeism’ row

Nearly 200 artists, curators, and critics have voiced their support of Palais de Tokyo after a longtime patron resigned from the Paris museum, accusing it of promoting “wokeism, anti-capitalism, pro-Palestine, etc.”

In an open letter, Collector Sandra Hegedüs said she withdrew from the museum's patron group, Amis du Palais de Tokyo, after 15 years because a current show contains references to efforts toward Palestinian liberation.

Hegedüs wrote that the exhibition “proposes, without perspective, some biased views and lies about the history of this conflict.” 

In an open letter first published in Le Monde, nearly 200 signatories, including artists Éric Baudelaire, Camille Henrot, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Pierre Huyghe, said the situation posed a potential threat to “institutional freedom” in France.

The letter said: “Like art and artists, our cultural institutions must remain free, or else risk disappearing.

“To remain free, they must be able to work with the professionalism and peace of mind that allow them to provide the conditions for the confrontation of ideas that is at the heart of their mission.”