On June 18, right after the opening of Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany, a large scandal occurred which ended the hype and joy of the art exhibition’s arrival. The reason the scandal occurred is that during the preview, visitors noticed a figure with a large nose, sharp teeth, a cigarette, and an “SS” cap in the banner created by the Taring Padi collective that was displayed in the center of Kassel’s square. This anti-Semitic banner caused an uproar among the people due to displaying a Nazi and brought the integrity of Documenta to question.
Documenta 15 is a contemporary art exhibition that occurs in Kassel Germany and is public. It lasts for 100 days and occurs once every 5 years. Each time Documenta occurs, they hire multiple core participants to go out and use their allocated budget to bring more artists and collectives into this art exhibition. During the day of the exhibition, the artists and collectives display their art and hold talks, stage performances, tend gardens, share food, and more. This year Documenta 15 had Ruangrupa, an Indonesian collective, as the edition’s artistic director. They had 67 main participants and were able to bring in over 1,000 people to participate in this year’s Documenta.
Christian Geselle, Kassel’s mayor and the chairman of the Supervisory Board said in his statement, “I would like to let visitors from Kassel and around the world know that we are looking forward to their visit.”
Because of the scandal, Documenta 15 essentially lost all momentum that it had built up. Despite the work being promptly removed from the exhibition, many politicians critiqued Documenta 15, and the media called the entire exhibition a national embarrassment. In addition, many people wanted Sabine Schormann, Documenta’s director-general, to resign since he told people to not screen any art in advance to preserve “artistic freedom”. This allowed the anti-Semitic image on Taring Padi’s banner to go unnoticed until it was presented to the public’s eyes on the day of the preview.
According to Jörg Häntzschel and Catrin Lorsch in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, this Documenta made “real dialogue between cultures extremely difficult for the foreseeable future.” This contrasts with Documenta’s goal of opening a multi-perspective dialogue beyond the institutional framework.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/arts/design/documenta-review.html
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/documenta-15-moves-forward-with-2022-schedule-1234597612/
Documenta 15 is a contemporary art exhibition that occurs in Kassel Germany and is public. It lasts for 100 days and occurs once every 5 years. Each time Documenta occurs, they hire multiple core participants to go out and use their allocated budget to bring more artists and collectives into this art exhibition. During the day of the exhibition, the artists and collectives display their art and hold talks, stage performances, tend gardens, share food, and more. This year Documenta 15 had Ruangrupa, an Indonesian collective, as the edition’s artistic director. They had 67 main participants and were able to bring in over 1,000 people to participate in this year’s Documenta.
Christian Geselle, Kassel’s mayor and the chairman of the Supervisory Board said in his statement, “I would like to let visitors from Kassel and around the world know that we are looking forward to their visit.”
Because of the scandal, Documenta 15 essentially lost all momentum that it had built up. Despite the work being promptly removed from the exhibition, many politicians critiqued Documenta 15, and the media called the entire exhibition a national embarrassment. In addition, many people wanted Sabine Schormann, Documenta’s director-general, to resign since he told people to not screen any art in advance to preserve “artistic freedom”. This allowed the anti-Semitic image on Taring Padi’s banner to go unnoticed until it was presented to the public’s eyes on the day of the preview.
According to Jörg Häntzschel and Catrin Lorsch in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, this Documenta made “real dialogue between cultures extremely difficult for the foreseeable future.” This contrasts with Documenta’s goal of opening a multi-perspective dialogue beyond the institutional framework.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/arts/design/documenta-review.html
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/documenta-15-moves-forward-with-2022-schedule-1234597612/
