By: Sophie Yang
Every five years, the prestigious, world-renowned international art exhibition and festival Documenta 15 takes place in Kassel, Germany. With over 1000 people putting their best works on display for this event, this wild, unrestrained experiment is the ultimate expression of artistic freedom. However, this past Saturday, a terrible scandal in the art community completely ruined the “whole vibe”.
Documenta 15 is not only a celebration of paintings, sculptures, and traditional drawings;, there are also exhibitions made from vegetable plots, saunas built from mosquito nets on the lawn of a Baroque-style castle, and a skateboard halfpipe at the front entrance!
On June 18th, its grand opening day, an anti-Semitic image that went undiscovered in the German exhibit quickly overshadowed the rest of the artworks and brought many critics to question the integrity of Documenta, which depends entirely on public funds. Antisemitism, or, in other words, prejudice against the Jewish religion, was clearly present in this “sharp dose of historical realism and contemporary Germany politics.” The image itself had prominent Holocaust connotations, including “a figure with a large nose, pointy teeth and side-locks, decked with an ‘SS’ cap”, as The New York Times journalist Siddhartha Mitter stated.
Although the work has now been removed from Documenta, criticism from the media and politicians flooded the exhibition, which is now a total “national embarrassment”. Many have called for better state control of future exhibits and the resignation of Sabine Schormann, Documenta’s director-general, who neglected to screen any art in advance “out of respect for artistic freedom”. For Germany’s exhibition, this year’s Documenta was over as soon as it started.
The art show continues to go on, even after these events. Yet, no matter how spectacular other cultures’ artful creations and films were, such as groups Centre d’art Waza and Le 18, the famous Documenta 15’s name will be forever tainted by the disrespect displayed this past week. Jörg Häntzschel and Catrin Lorsch from the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper concluded, “An exhibition can only succeed if the individual works are known to a curator who places them in a meaningful, functioning relationship with one another. This Documenta has made real dialogue between cultures extremely difficult for the foreseeable future.”
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/arts/design/documenta-review.html