Documenta’s director general, Sabine Schormann, has left her position. Documenta gGmbh, the nonprofit organization that oversees the quinquennial show, made the announcement on Saturday.
The statement claims that during a discussion on Friday night, the Documenta board and Schormann came to a mutual understanding on “short notice.” The claims of antisemitism, which have been swirling for months, reached a boiling point two days after the exhibition’s June 18 opening when viewers became aware of anti-Semitic iconography in a well-known piece of art by the Indonesian collective Taring Padi.
The statement on Tuesday, July 12, aimed to clarify how Documenta and the curators had handled an ongoing controversy that started in January when members of the artistic team and certain artists were accused of anti-Semitism. That statement was followed by the announcement on Saturday.