Seven scientists are now to work on the allegations of anti-Semitism surrounding the world art show in Kassel. The new committee starts with a criticism of the documenta management.
Motifs were found in a brochure of the “Archives des luttes des femmes en Algérie” initiative that were criticized as anti-Semitic
The conflict and peace researcher Nicole Deitelhoff heads the new seven-person body. This was announced by the documenta shareholders, the city of Kassel and the state of Hesse, on Monday. “We expect that indications of possible anti-Semitic imagery and the promotion of Israel-related anti-Semitism will be investigated, taking into account the fundamentally protected freedom of art,” emphasized the chairman of the supervisory board, Kassel's mayor Christian Geselle.
Nicole Deitelhoff chairs the newly appointed documenta 15 Advisory Board
In addition to Deitelhoff, who works as a professor for international relations and theories of global regulatory policy at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, the advisory board includes:
- Marion Ackermann, Director General of the Dresden State Art Collections
- Julia Bernstein, Professor of Discrimination and Inclusion in the Immigration Society at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences
- Marina Chernivsky, Founder and Managing Director of the Berlin Advice Center for Anti-Semitic Violence
- Peter Jelavich, Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland (USA)
- Christoph Möllers, Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy at Humboldt University in Berlin
- Facil Tesfaye, Junior Professor at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth welcomed the appointment of a committee to accompany the documenta after the anti-Semitism scandal. “Such a wide-ranging scientific support for this art exhibition is necessary and overdue,” said the Greens politician. With artistic freedom comes responsibility in publicly funded cultural institutions, Roth said.
The Taring Padi banner was dismantled on June 21
Anti-Semitism scandal overshadows 15th documenta
The documenta, which is considered one of the most important art exhibitions in the world, has been accompanied by allegations of anti-Semitism for months. The first voices had already been raised in January, accusing the Indonesian curator collective Ruangrupa and some invited artists of being close to the anti-Israel boycott movement BDS. Shortly after the exhibition opened in mid-June, a banner belonging to the Indonesian art collective Taring Padi was taken down after anti-Jewish motifs were discovered in it. In the past week, images that caused anti-Semitic accusations have appeared again.
Jewish perspective too little considered
The newly appointed committee criticizes the management of the documenta. According to a statement published by the scientists on Monday, the latter had previously been open to specialist advice, but seemed to want to define essential questions about how to deal with anti-Semitic art. The position that neither further works of art have to be removed due to anti-Semitic content nor that the works need to be checked systematically contradicts a professional and open-ended dialogue. The committee reserves the right to formulate its own position.
Alexander Farenholtz is the new one Managing Director of d15 – his predecessor Sabine Schormann has resigned from her position
Banners by Taring Padi showed anti-Semitic stereotypes
In June, a work by the Indonesian artists' collective Taring Padi caused outrage. It showed, among other things, a man with a pig nose, a scarf with a Star of David and a helmet with the inscription “Mossad”. There was also a picture of a man with sidelocks whose hat was apparently decorated with an SS rune. The work was first covered and then removed. The calls for consequences then became louder and louder. The general director of the art exhibition, Sabine Schormann, resigned in mid-July. More anti-Semitic images appeared in the past week.
so/rbr (dpa/AFP)