The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, has again raised serious allegations against the new documenta management.
For weeks, the country has been discussing anti-Semitism, the anti-Israeli boycott movement BDS and hatred of Israel.
“The management of the Documenta continues to act as if it doesn't concern them.
Obviously, it doesn't matter who is in charge there," he said, according to a statement on Thursday.
After the resignation of Documenta general director Sabine Schormann, Alexander Farenholtz was recently appointed as interim managing director.
One has to ask oneself "how far along are we in Germany if these pictures can be considered good as alleged 'Israel criticism'," explained Schuster.
The silence of those responsible in cultural policy on this is booming.
"This documenta will go down in history as an anti-Semitic art show." Even the words of the Federal President at the opening obviously did not lead to any insight.
"The fact that this documenta can really run until September 25 seems hardly imaginable," emphasized Schuster.
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) is in favor of at least temporarily removing the new works of art that have been criticized as anti-Semitic from the Documenta.
"It is right and proper that the partners of the documenta have now asked the artistic direction to remove these drawings from the exhibition," said Roth on Thursday in Berlin.
"The handling of these drawings before Mr. Farenholtz took office shows once again how important and necessary an external committee of experts is to analyze and classify the works shown at the documenta in relation to possible anti-Semitic visual languages.
This expertise should then be taken very seriously by those responsible for the documenta.”
The two shareholders - the city of Kassel and the state of Hesse - had reacted to renewed allegations of anti-Semitism against documenta fifteen.
They demand that the drawings under discussion be removed from the exhibition "until they are appropriately contextualised".
"The handling of the drawings shows how urgently external expertise is needed when analyzing works for anti-Semitic (image) language," they said on Thursday about the documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH.
Already at the beginning of the art exhibition, a work with anti-Semitic depictions had to be taken down.
This Wednesday, new works appeared that caused sharp criticism.