Open letter to the supervisory board of documenta

Dear Lord Mayor Geselle,
dear Minister Dorn,
dear Sir or Madam,

we, WerteInitiative, are a civil-society association whose main concern is securing a Jewish future in Germany and thereby our free democratic basic order. We are turning to you as the supervisory board of documenta gGmbH, because it is your task to supervise the work of the documenta management and, if necessary, to intervene.

Director General Alexander Farenholtz, who has been entrusted with the interim management of documenta fifteen, is evidently completely overwhelmed by the tasks before him only a short time after taking office. His predecessor Sabine Schormann had to resign because she had found no answers, or not the right answers, to the ongoing antisemitism scandal, which is repeatedly fuelled by the constant discovery of new anti-Jewish exhibits.

Although it is his explicit task to correct the situation created by the blatant failings of his predecessor, in only two weeks in office Alexander Farenholtz has achieved precisely the opposite: hatred of Jews exhibited at documenta is, under his leadership, no longer merely tolerated and played down, but actively accepted.

Whether something is antisemitic or not, he said, he cannot and does not wish to judge. Yet the exhibits in question could hardly serve antisemitic imagery more unambiguously. When the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany) and the Jüdische Gemeinde Frankfurt am Main pointed out to him his lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation, Mr Farenholtz let it be known that he did not feel addressed. More openly displayed irresponsibility is scarcely possible. Through his active inaction, Mr Farenholtz gives free rein to anti-Jewish ideas at documenta fifteen, which he himself directs and for whose content he is now responsible.

Alexander Farenholtz is thereby contributing to the normalisation of antisemitic patterns of thought in Germany. It is this normalisation, through which hatred of Jewish women and men is simply accepted, that causes us, Jewish people in Germany, profound, real fears. The consensus on which we thought we could rely until now – namely the clear commitment of political, social and cultural decision-makers to fight hatred of Jews and thereby to make Jewish life in Germany possible in the first place – is being broken up by Farenholtz and like-minded people. For us German Jewish women and men, the antisemitism scandal surrounding documenta fifteen is already a breach of the dam.

Alexander Farenholtz is therefore untenable as Director General of documenta. Co-responsible for the presentation of the antisemitic images and films at documenta, as well as for the failure to engage with them, is however also the curatorial collective ruangrupa. To this day the curators have not shown even a minimum of understanding of the problem in any of their public statements. They apologise to those affected for hurt feelings, without understanding that this is not about the hurt feelings of a few individuals, but about objectively antisemitic, discriminatory, extremely dangerous messages of hatred which they are exhibiting at documenta fifteen. There is therefore also no reason whatsoever to enter into a conversation about these, as demanded by ruangrupa.

Instead of recognising that their work sows anti-Jewish hatred, ruangrupa in aggressive fashion refuse to accept supposed censorship and combine this with accusations of racism directed at those who defend themselves against antisemitism. The curators are not only unaware of any guilt, but together with Alexander Farenholtz they actively prevent the removal of antisemitic exhibits. On the images found most recently and generally regarded as clearly and unmistakably antisemitic, ruangrupa commented tersely that the images were unambiguously not antisemitic. In doing so, ruangrupa disqualifies itself for the task of the artistic direction of documenta fifteen.

We urgently appeal to you as the supervisory board of documenta to relieve both Director General Alexander Farenholtz and the curatorial collective ruangrupa of their respective duties as quickly as possible. The damage done by the two successive documenta heads is already considerable for the Jewish community in Germany, for the uninvolved artists, for the institution of documenta and, not least, for Germany as a location for art and culture. Should the antisemitism scandal continue to have no meaningful and lasting consequences, it must be doubted that the city of Kassel and the state of Hessen are fundamentally, and also in future, equal to the task of hosting the art show.

Neither public appeals nor substantive criticism nor the first exchange with the management so far have helped to put an end to the rampant antisemitism at documenta fifteen. It is in your hands to ensure that no more of the Jewish community’s trust in German society is lost and that the reputation of documenta does not suffer further. We welcome the expert commission that has been appointed – but at the present time it cannot replace consequences at the personnel level. Especially since, immediately after taking up its work, the commission criticised the management for regarding neither a removal nor a review of antisemitic works as necessary.

We politely point out that we will communicate this letter and your reply publicly – unless you require otherwise of us. Personal contact details and signatures would be made unrecognisable.

Yours sincerely

Elio Adler

– Chairman –