Sabine Schormann, director of the German art manifestation Documenta in Kassel, has resigned after a controversy arose about a work that allegedly contained anti-Semitic symbols. The supervisory board of the exhibition announced this on Saturday, reports the German newspaper, among others Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Also read: Documenta censors artwork after accusation of anti-Semitism
A meter-sized work of art by the Indonesian collective Taring Padi was covered with a black tarp in mid-June a few days after the opening of Documenta 15, after there was a stir on social media about anti-Semitic symbols that would be on the work. Zoomed in photos in German media, for example, showed an Israeli soldier with a pig’s head, who also wears a scarf with a Star of David on it.
The fuss over the work ‘People’s Justice’ has been accompanied in recent weeks by calls for 60-year-old Schormann to resign. She is said to have been too passive and not attracted enough to criticism that had already been made on Taring Padi’s work before the opening of the exhibition. The supervisory board called the display of the work “clearly cross-border” and stated that the Documenta “caused significant damage”.
Schormann has been the director of Documenta since the autumn of 2018. Initially, the festival will look for an interim director. This year’s exhibition can be seen until September 25, without the work of Taring Padi.