“POSITIVE NEUTRALITY”

I want to assert the term POSITIVE NEUTRALITY as a contribution to the discussion in Switzerland about NEUTRALITY which is established in the exhibition ‘Model Neutrality’ (where my work “Wirtschaftslandschaft Davos”, 2001 is shown) at the Kunsthaus Aarau.

POSITIVE NEUTRALITY derives from the term ‘positive discrimination.’ The essentially negative term ‘discrimination’ is reversed into positivity through ‘positive discrimination’. This reversal also applies to POSITIVE NEUTRALITY.

The new term POSITIVE NEUTRALITY is meant to define a positive, proactive, dynamic form of NEUTRALITY. Too often in the past, the term NEUTRALITY has been used in a passive, cautious, opportunistic, profiteering way, claimed and applied in order not to take a stand, and therefore not to have to pay the price for it, or to avoid taking a side, and therefore not to suffer any harm.

This desire to ‘stand on no side,’ this unwillingness to ‘take a stand’ has always been problematic, because we know that the truth is always clearly on one side, never in the middle. The outdated concept of NEUTRALITY is only based on the protection of one’s own interests; it no longer makes sense and must be reinvented. The term POSITIVE NEUTRALITY still has NEUTRALITY in its title – but not without activating it, weighting it, charging it with positivity. NEUTRALITY can therefore only be thought of and realized as a POSITIVE NEUTRALITY.

POSITIVE NEUTRALITY means taking fundamentally position for the weak. It means to decidedly stand by the weaker, and programmatically side with the less powerful. In every case, and from the beginning of a conflict, there is always a weaker one and a more powerful one. This fundamental and programmatic positioning – FOR THE WEAK – is where the assertive, offensive, and proactive nature of POSITIVE NEUTRALITY lies. POSITIVE NEUTRALITY is FOR something, FOR the weak, it is NOT AGAINST the powerful. Practically and as examples today, it means to stand by and for, Ukraine, Palestine, Armenia.

In this way, NEUTRALITY is fundamentally reversed into something positive and becomes an active, dynamic concept. With POSITIVE NEUTRALITY, the term NEUTRALITY can no longer be used as a cheap excuse for justifying a profiteering, interest-driven, sometimes hypocrite or corrupt stance.

Thomas Hirschhorn, 2025