German art exhibition defends response to anti-Semitism accusations

The head of documenta, one of Germany's most renowned exhibitions of modern art, has defended the leadership team's response to accusations of anti-Semitic images being included in this year's show, as criticism of the show continued to mount.
The exhibition's artistic directors were free to curate the show, documenta general director Sabine Schormann said in a statement. She also noted that the show's Indonesian artistic directors had felt concerned about not being welcome in Germany.
Schormann's comments came after a work entitled "People's Justice" was removed from the 15th edition of the show just days after its opening when allegedly anti-Semitic symbols were discovered in it.
There was an international outcry against the inclusion of the large-scale banner, which was slammed as anti-Semitic, leading to a public debate of the exhibition, its management and funding.
While allegations of anti-Semitism emerged before the show opened. Schormann rejected accusations that she had failed to respond in a timely fashion.
In fact, the issue has been at the heart of numerous discussions involving the curators and artists, external experts, the supervisory board, Culture Minister Claudia Roth and the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Schormann said.
However, even then, she said, curators and artists "feared censorship and therefore rejected an external panel of experts," Schormann said, adding that the team had felt defensive.
"They saw themselves under general suspicion and defamed and sometimes threatened because of their origin, skin colour, religion or sexual orientation."
She said the banner in question, by Indonesian artist collective Taring Padi, had not been removed immediately as the curators and the artists sought dialogue first.
"Removing the work from the exhibition against the will of the artistic directors and the artists would have been, as a last resort, a considerable interference with their artistic freedom."
She also said that the work had been assessed by experts in criminal law who had concluded "there is no criminal liability."
The fact that after the banner was removed there were renewed calls for external experts "with decision-making powers" to review the exhibition "put enormous strain on the relationship of trust" with curatorial team ruangrupa and the artists, Schormann said.
The director of the Anne Frank Educational Centre, Meron Mendel, stepped down as an external advisor to the documenta, and said its organizers had not adequately responded to the anti-Semitism scandal.
Schormann rejected Mendel's representations, saying that documenta is "not a show of nations or art" but presents "forward-looking concepts."
This was possible thanks to the fact that the artistic freedom of the directors and artists involved has been guaranteed for decades, she said, adding that this was what underpinned documenta's reputation as the "most important art exhibition in the world."