The art critic who accused prominent ballet director Marco Geocke of smearing dog feces on her face was “petrified” by the alleged attack that left her “screaming and crying” in the middle of a show at the Hannover Opera House on Saturday.
“He didn’t just throw it at me. He pulled out the bag with the open side of the bag and rubbed it in my face brutally, so the dog poop would stick in my face,” Wiebke Huester, a writer for Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, told The Daily Beast in an interview on Tuesday. “One moment we were still talking and the next moment his fist was in my face. When I realized what he had done, I screamed. I was so shocked, so panicked. You can’t imagine.”
The alleged attack came after Huester wrote an unfavorable review of In the Dutch Mountain, a production staged by Goecke with the Nederlands Dans Theater, which was performed in The Hague. In her review of the play, published the same day of the alleged attack, Huester said the production was “disjointed,” and could make people “go insane and be killed by boredom while watching.”
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The 57-year-old art critic told The Daily Beast that she had been more than willing to speak to Geocke when she allegedly saw him come up to her at the Hannover Opera House, where she was watching the premiere of his ballet performance, “Faith - Love - Hope.”
“He seemed to want to talk after I had given him a bad review. And I thought, ‘Of course I’ll talk to you.’ And then he starts talking and he said, ‘No one should have let you in! Why are you here? No one should have let you in. You are always writing these bad personal reviews of me,’” she told The Daily Beast. “I was telling him ‘no, my words are not personal. It’s not about you as a person. I see a big talent in you… I didn’t get to explain it to him because at that moment he pulled out the open poop bag out of his jacket and stuffed it in my face, brutally.”
After the alleged attack, Huester said she called her husband—her boss at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung—who detailed the incident in a report headlined “Attack on our dance critic” Sunday.
“Marco Goecke attacked our dance critic Wiebke Hüster first verbally, and then physically,” the report said. “Apparently provoked by her review… he initially threatened her with being ‘banned from the house.’ Getting more and more upset, Goecke finally got physical: He pulled out a paper bag with animal feces and smacked the face of our dance critic with the contents. After that, he was able to go his own way unhindered through the crowded foyer.”
According to German media outlets, the feces was taken from Goecke’s pet dachshund, Gustav, who is frequently spotted alongside the award-winning director.
“Ms. Hüster’s personal integrity was violated in an unspeakable way. We are appalled by what has happened and very much regret that the escalation has occurred,” the opera house said in a statement on their website. “With his impulsive reaction to the journalist, Marco Goecke violated all the rules of conduct of the Hanover State Opera and caused massive damage to the State Opera and the State Ballet in Hanover.”
The opera house added that they have asked Goecke to apologize comprehensively to the art critic.
A police investigation has since been launched against Goecke, who was suspended from the Hanover state opera house on Monday.
“This newspaper considered the humiliating act beyond the fact of physical harm as an attempt to intimidate our free, critical art appreciation,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said in their report about the attack. “Goecke’s crossing of borders reveals the disturbed relationship between an artist and criticism.”
Huester, meanwhile, says she’s been overwhelmed by the outpouring of supportive messages she has received in response to the alleged incident.
“I feel supported and protected,” she said. “Ever since I have received many texts and emails saying ‘Please keep going. We always read your things. We love what you do. Please don’t give up. Go back to work.’’
