Sabine Schormann: an overdue step?

The documenta fifteen is ill-fated. The almost 70-year-old world art exhibition is in crisis. It left the artistic direction to the Indonesian collective ruangrupa. It acted in an opaque manner, detached from higher authorities, and accusations of anti-Semitism were already germinating in January. At that time, the issue was the support of the Palestinian collective The Question of Funding, which is said to hold anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist viewpoints. In addition, ruangrupa is said to be close to the Israel boycott movement BDS. The fact that in return no Israeli or Jewish artists were invited to the most important art exhibition in the world was also met with anger. After a lot of rejections, the supergau happened on the day of the opening. The Indonesian group Taring Padi installed their banner People's Justice (2002), which had been kept secret until then, in downtown Kassel. On it: a soldier with a pig's face, wearing a scarf with a Star of David and a helmet with the inscription Mossad, the name of the Israeli foreign intelligence service. The anti-Semitic imagery in the form of this animal metaphor already exists since the High Middle Ages was later widely received - so especially in this country no stranger.

A month, a removal of the banner éclat and an official apology from the curatorial team later, Sabine Schormann decided on Saturday (July 15, 2022) to resign from her post as general director of the event. According to the German newspaper TAZ, she stonewalled until the end, did not show up for a documenta discussion evening, stayed away from any possibility of an explanation, and called in sick when the Bundestag's culture committee was debating. The mayor of Kassel, Christian Geselle (SPD), is also said to have held on to her until the very end. It is still unclear how the documenta intends to come to terms with what happened. For the time being, documenta und Fridericianum gGmbH is canceling Schormann's contract and will then look for an interim director.

But is Schormann really solely responsible for this? As the top string-puller, according to Stefan Koldenhoff, journalist and art expert, she should already have an eye on it, as he told the German TV station ZDF: »Ms. Schormann is already responsible for the whole thing as managing director or general director. That means she can't really just retreat to saying, 'I have to make sure that the money is there and that the right screws, the right craftsmen, the right posters are available,' but she also bears responsibility for the artistic side of things. At the moment, of course, she is right to say: But I am not a censor.« In addition, documenta worked on the organizational structure after the last event. According to ZDF, the commission is to accompany and advise on the entire artistic process.  

The documenta will run for two more months. It remains exciting how and whether it will recover after this turbulent first third.