The Documenta could get back into calmer waters. The former Documenta managing director and founding board member of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, Alexander Farenholtz, will temporarily become managing director of the Documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH.
The old is the new, at least for the time being. On Monday, the supervisory board unanimously appointed the culture manager, who has been retired for more than two years, from July 19 to September 30 and happily reactivated him. Farenholtz is therefore very familiar with the Documenta.
In 1989 he was appointed managing director of Documenta GmbH and accompanied Documenta 9, which took place three years later, under the artistic direction of Jan Hoet. It set a new understanding of the world exhibition after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In 2002, Farenholtz was appointed founding board member and administrative director of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. He held this office alongside Hortensia Völckers as artistic director until January 2020.
With Farenholtz, an experienced cultural manager is taking over from managing director Sabine Schormann, who was relieved of her duties on Saturday and stumbled upon the anti-Semitism scandal at the Documenta.
Schormann had not succeeded in raising awareness and had refused to take responsibility for the fact that a large banner with anti-Semitic motifs had been hung up on Friedrichsplatz.
Her successor will first enter into discussions with the artistic direction, the Indonesian curator collective Ruangrupa, and then with the team at Documenta gGmbH.
For Kassel it means an opportunity to shed light on the background of the scandal, for the cultural sector the opportunity to explore its attitude towards the BDS in a less heated manner.
