Dozens of galleries in Düsseldorf have issued a joint statement rejecting the far-right AfD party's attempt to stage a cultural event in the city, in what has become a notable flashpoint over the political instrumentalization of art.

The AfD's Düsseldorf branch has scheduled an event titled Kulturpolitik von rechts! (Cultural Policy from the Right) for October 26 at the Heinrich-Heine-Institut, featuring Bundestag member Matthias Helferich. The evening is to begin with a walk from the Goethe-Museum, and the party has invoked Heinrich Heine and Joseph Beuys — two figures closely associated with the city — in its framing.

In their statement, the galleries declare their opposition to what they describe as the attempt to appropriate the city's history and cultural heritage for a party-political agenda. The signatories range from long-standing names such as Beck & Eggeling and Konrad Fischer to younger spaces including Sies + Höke, Ruttkowski;68, SETAREH and Van der Grinten — a roll call spanning the city's commercial and independent scene.

Their counterparts across the Rhine have added their names in solidarity: Cologne galleries including Nagel Draxler, Gisela Capitain and Boisserée signed on. The intervention reflects a broader German pattern in which the art world has mobilized against far-right cultural initiatives, particularly as the AfD seeks to give its cultural politics a veneer of respectability through high-cultural venues. The galleries' message is pointed: art and culture belong to no party.

The statement marks one of the most unified responses yet from the Rhineland gallery scene to far-right cultural politics. By publishing a joint text rather than individual objections, the signatories — joined by colleagues from Cologne — have turned the October 26 event into a test case for how the German art world answers attempts to borrow its institutions for partisan ends.