Documenta art festival director resigns over antisemitism scandal

The Director of Documenta, the quinquennial art festival held in the German city of Kassel, has resigned after the fifteenth edition of the festival displayed works that contained inflammatory references toward Jews.

Director Sabine Schormann has agreed with Documenta’s supervisory board that her contract will be terminated and an interim director will be appointed in her stead.

After months of controversy and speculation about alleged antisemitism, Documenta 15 opened in June and featured the artwork People’s Justice (2002) by the Indonesian collective, Taring Padi, which includes images of soldiers who have pigs’ heads for faces and are labelled with the word “Mossad”, the Israeli intelligence agency, and what appears to be a caricature of a visibly Jewish person with sidelocks, smoking a cigar, accompanied by symbols of the SS, the Nazi paramilitary unit, on his hat.

Jewish groups in Germany and throughout the world had expressed their concerns about Documenta 15, which has been curated by the Indonesian art collective, ruangrupa, because they included another foreign collective, the Question of Funding, which supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, in the exhibition. Taring Padi were, however, not included in those initial complaints.

The organisers of Documenta initially placed a black drape over People’s Justice, which was later dismantled, but some Jewish groups complained that the festival’s organisers had not gone far enough to address the issue.

Antisemitic incidents in Germany have increased considerably. Campaign Against Antisemitism is reports on antisemitic incidents in Germany.