Following the renewed discovery of antisemitic imagery at documenta fifteen and the relativisation of this hostility towards Jews now pursued by documenta director general Alexander Farenholtz, WerteInitiative calls for his immediate resignation.
“Alexander Farenholtz had the opportunity, as interim head of documenta, to create a fresh start by finally putting an end to the virulent hatred of Jews at the art show. Farenholtz, however, is doing precisely the opposite: he relativises obviously antisemitic stereotypes and glosses over them as unproblematic. With that he too has failed within the shortest time as director general of documenta and is no longer tenable”, says Elio Adler, Chairman of WerteInitiative.
Since January of this year WerteInitiative has been calling for a serious examination of the antisemitism at the art show. Unfortunately, however, our appeals too have largely gone unheard, so that antisemitism can continue to make its way, apparently largely unhindered.
Adler on this: “It would have been easy for Mr Farenholtz, knowing about the antisemitism scandal that has been going on for months, to do the right thing now. Irrespective of the decisions of his predecessor, he ought to have ensured that the art show was examined for antisemitic works and that they be removed if such are found. Instead he refers to the works’ lack of relevance under criminal law – this, however, must not be the yardstick in assessing hatred of Jews. Rather, the yardstick here should be the definition of antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which is recognised worldwide and has also been adopted by the German federal government.”
