“Apparently, art only matters when it’s from the right kind of suffering.”
The new moral geography
We love to believe art transcends politics. Until it doesn’t.
Until you post a Russian artist and someone sends you a DM that starts with “Are you aware…?”
Show Ghana and you’re praised. Show Russia and you’re suspect.
Apparently, we can’t be supportive and curious at the same time. You have to choose your side: victim or villain.
The good, the bad, the curated
Both artists live under regimes that silence, censor, and manipulate.
So why is one framed as the oppressed and the other as the oppressor? Geography. Optics. Hashtags.
I keep wondering: if an artist can be a narcissist, a liar, a monster, and still make something that moves us, why can’t an artist simply be an individual?
Being born under a tyrant doesn’t mean loyal to one.
Sorting ethics like hashtags
Not every Israeli artist supports their government. Not every Palestinian artist supports Hamas.
Not every Swede votes right wing, and not every American artist owns a flag.
Yet the art world loves its moral sorting hat.
Good victim. Bad participant. Approved suffering. Cancelled passport.
It’s easier to perform ethics than to practice them.
The small ones in the machine
And yes, I get it. There are times when you have to draw lines, when the money behind a show stinks of propaganda, or when a museum turns a blind eye to war crimes for the sake of diplomacy.
The smell of turpentine doesn’t change with the flag.
But most of us aren’t curating power. We’re curating people.
Artists who wake up, try to make rent, paint, code, photograph, write, all while their governments make it harder.
When neutrality becomes a myth
We keep pretending art is neutral. In truth it’s the last honest place left, because artists don’t have PR departments, only nerves.
They create under pressure, under fear, under censorship, under hope. Sometimes all at once.
Confession
I don’t have an answer.
I just know that if I start filtering art by nationality, I’ll become the very system I claim to critique.
I’ll stop seeing the person and start seeing the passport.
And that’s the moment art dies.
Let them speak
Maybe the revolution isn’t boycotting individuals. Maybe it’s giving them a platform despite their governments.
The moment we stop listening, we’re not fighting tyranny anymore. We’re copying it.
Let the small voices speak, even if they come from the wrong side of the map.
I’m trying. We all are.
Dominique’s Lost in Translation.
New series every Tuesday.
If nothing breaks, burns, or beeps.
We write without filters. No PR polish, no safe takes, no art-speak gymnastics. Just what hits us, what hurts, and what won’t let go.
Uncensored thoughts from inside the art world. Every Tuesday.
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Monday Bitch #1
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Artist - Spotlight - Stefan Bakmand
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Kunsthalle Wien
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