The chair of the documenta expert committee, Nicole Deitelhoff, has criticized the management of the world art exhibition in Kassel for their handling of the renewed anti-Semitism allegations. “The committee was neither informed about the pasting over nor about the removal of works from the exhibition if they had been removed in a targeted manner,” Deitelhoff told the “Welt am Sonntag”. Both are completely inappropriate with a view to dealing with the problem of anti-Semitism in these works and massively hinder the work of the committee.
Accusations of anti-Semitism against documenta fifteen have been circulating since the beginning of the year. Shortly after the opening of the exhibition, a banner with anti-Jewish motifs by the Indonesian art collective Taring Padi was taken down.
Several works were later criticized as anti-Semitic, including depictions in a brochure, which have since been removed from the exhibition. Recently there was outrage about another work by Taring Padi, whereupon a headgear depicted in it, which resembles a kippah, was pasted over.
