Documenta gets new interim director

Alexander Farenholtz has been named the art exhibition's new chief until September 2022. The event's former director general, Sabine Schormann, finally resigned weeks after a documenta exhibit was found to have antisemitic elements.

The documenta supervisory board have confirmed Alexander Farenholtz as the interim director general, said Hesse's Culture Minister Angela Dorn and Kassel's Mayor Christian Geselle on July 18. Geselle and Dorn are both supervisory board members and said they were happy to find an experienced cultural manager in these challenging times, German media reported.

Farenholtz will take over as director general immediately, with his stint due to end in September. The cultural administrator previously served as documenta's head in 1989, with Jan Hoet as artistic director.

Starting 2002, he served as administrative director of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, a position he held until his retirement in 2020. He worked alongside author Hortensia Völckers, who was artistic director of the institution.

Leaders call for event's reappraisal

"Overdue" was the reaction among many German politicians and culture practitioners to the resignation of Sabine Schormann, the director-general of documenta, who resigned after antisemitic motifs were discovered in an installation at one of the world's most important art exhibitions, which opened last month.

Following an outcry over a mural featuring antisemitic caricatures, the event's executive board announced on July 16 that Schormann was vacating her post by mutual agreement.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany described the resignation as a step that came far too late. "Even worse, the reputation of the Federal Republic has suffered immense damage due to irresponsible action," its president Josef Schuster said on Sunday.

Also describing Schormann's resignation as "overdue," the federal government's antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, told the "Bild am Sonntag" newspaper that "Antisemitism must not be accepted in cultural life, no matter where the cultural workers come from."

'Disgust' at antisemitic mural

Since its inception in 1955, the 100-day documenta exhibition has taken place every five years in the city of Kassel, located in the German state of Hesse, with every edition being led by a different curator.

The 15th edition this year was curated by the Indonesian collective ruangrupa.

Two days after the show opened to the public, a mural titled "People's Justice," by Indonesian art group Taring Padi, drew widespread ire over depictions that both the German government and Jewish groups say went too far.

Amongst others, it featured a pig-faced figure dressed in army fatigues wearing a scarf with a Star of David and a helmet bearing the word "Mossad" — the name of Israel's national intelligence agency.

It also featured a man with sidelocks often associated with Orthodox Jews, with fangs and bloodshot eyes wearing a black hat with the SS insignia on it.

Jewish leaders and Israel's embassy to Germany voiced "disgust" at the artwork and repeatedly called for Schormann to quit. 

In Germany, the law considers swastikas and SS runes the "symbols of anti-constitutional organizations." Displaying them publicly or selling goods that sport them is illegal. Swastikas and other banned symbols can, however, be displayed in Germany if they are used for "civic education, countering anti-constitutional activities, art and science, research and education, the coverage of historic and current events, or similar purposes," according to the Criminal Code.

In cases of controversy, it is usually up to courts to rule on whether the use of a Nazi symbol has educational, scientific, journalistic or artistic merit.

The mural was first covered up but following persistent outcry, it was finally taken down.

The Indonesian-based Taring Padi collective apologized for the incident, saying that the work — which was first exhibited at the South Australia Art Festival in Adelaide 20 years ago — was "in no way related" to antisemitism, but instead referred to the post-1965 dictatorship in Indonesia.

Sabine Schormann too had originally defended the piece, saying the exhibition's artistic directors were free to curate the show as they wished. 

Critical reappraisal needed

In their statement on Saturday, the documenta supervisory board expressed "its profound dismay" about "clearly antisemitic" content which it said was a "clear transgression of borders."

Germany's culture minister, Claudia Roth, who backed Schormann's departure, demanded an investigation into how the antisemitic work was accepted in the first place.

"The necessary conclusions must be drawn," Roth told the "Frankfurter Rundschau" on Sunday, underscoring her willingness to support the process of reimagining "this important fixture for contemporary art worldwide."

The supervisory board promised a full investigation, conceding that "a lot of trust has unfortunately been lost" and pledging to prevent other "antisemitic incidents."

But Remko Leemhuis, director of the American Jewish Committee Berlin, accused documenta of not going far enough and of having "still not understood the problem."

Quoted by the "Bild" daily, Leemhuis was especially critical of the board's reference to "accusations of antisemitism," since the pieces were, he said, clearly "antisemitic."

Before the exhibition began, German media had criticised Ruangrupa's inclusion of Palestinian artists' group called The Question of Funding, whose founder had previously expressed support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS seeks to financially pressure Israel into ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories and allowing full equality for its Arab-Palestinian citizens.

On Monday, Schuster said that the activities of BDS in Germany had been trivialized and it was being depicted as a "harmless" protest movement.

In his Bild interview, Klein demanded that the Bundestag's 2019 decision to condemn BDS and fight antisemitism should be a binding guideline for the future use of public funds in cultural funding.

About half of documenta's €42 million ($42.39 million) budget comes from public funds.

Averting further damage

The supervisory board also added in its statement that it is seeking to clarify this incident soon "to avert further damage to documenta."

It has enlisted a "specialist scientific support team" that will include academics ose fields of expertise include antisemitism, postcolonialism and art. They will look at the "processes, structures and receptions" of documenta fifteen and make recommendations for its reappraisal, in addition to studying current exhibits for any further antisemitic elements. 

Linda Teuteberg, who is responsible at the FDP parliamentary group for Jewish life said that documenta's antisemitism scandal should be seen as a message that goes beyond the art exhibition. "Israel-related antisemitism, like all forms of any manifestation of anti-Semitism is unacceptable. Trivializations with reference to the "global south" are just as unacceptable."

bh/mg (dpa, AFP, AP, EPD)