Documenta gGmbH has a new boss. After the Supervisory Board terminated the contract of the extremely unlucky Sabine Schormann by mutual agreement, her successor was announced yesterday. With the administrative scientist Dr. Alexander Fahrenholtz is now getting a capable and experienced cultural manager for the scandal-ridden show, at least for the remaining time. Fahrenholtz, born in 1954, will be interim general director until the end of September. He was already managing director of Documenta 9 under Jan Hoet. From 2002 to 2017 he sat on the supervisory board of the Documenta for the Federal Cultural Foundation. Together with Hortensia Völckers, he has managed the powerful foundation since its inception as administrative director.
Is this now a representative of federal politics at the helm, as many would like? no Alexander Fahrenholtz retired this summer. He probably came along other, Hessian paths. Kassel’s ex-OB Hans Eichel, as Prime Minister of Hesse, was the quasi-boss of Fahrenholtz, who now lives in Berlin. He is said to have campaigned for the appeal. Hans Eichel, on the other hand, staunchly defends Documenta fifteen against all criticism. Fahrenholtz will know better that that is not enough, otherwise the Documenta shareholders in Hesse and Kassel would not hire him.
Because it is not the supervisory board or the gray eminence of Kassel who decide where to go, but the shareholders of Documenta gGmbH. These are the state of Hesse and the city of Kassel. And here, especially on the part of Hesse, the reins are now being tightened. The shareholders do not rely on the protagonists of Documenta fifteen, i.e. Schormann, Ruangrupa and the artistic team, when dealing with the anti-Semitism scandal. This is in a statement by the supervisory board on Monday. Instead of genuine reflection and self-criticism, of which Documenta fifteen is apparently incapable, there should now be “scientific support”.
It is not quite clear who will have more say in this process, the external experts who have yet to be named or the Documenta fifteen team, which is made up of BDS fans and includes a similar Documenta advisory board, which (at that time still as a selection committee) selected Ruangrupa – with the known consequences. Fahrenholtz has to make sure that the anti-Israel goat is not made the gardener again. However, no matter how short his term of office, he will also have to push himself mentally to ensure that the documenta finally undergoes a structural reform.
As a manager of large cultural events and as an expert on the federal system, he is certainly well suited for this. What is often forgotten about the large budgets and the large number of artists: so far, the world art exhibition Documenta has only been a small, rumpled operation for four years, which then puffs up like a supernova – and is then completely reinvented by new people every time. Which, if it’s the wrong people, can massively backfire. As we now know.
