Immediately after its convening on Monday, the new committee for the scientific monitoring of Documenta 15 sharply criticized the provisional managing director of the world art exhibition, Alexander Farenholtz.
He had taken over the post from Sabine Schormann after she had resigned because of her handling of allegations of anti-Semitism.
The criticism initially concerned a work by the artist collective Taring Padi, which was taken down shortly after the opening of the Documenta in June.
As reported, other motifs with anti-Semitic imagery appeared in the brochure “Presence des Femmes”.
Farenholtz had defended in interviews that they would continue to be shown.
Against this background, the Lord Mayor of Kassel, Christian Geselle (SPD), and the Hessian Minister of Art, Angela Dorn (Die Grünen), published a list of seven scientists on Monday, headed by the Frankfurt Professor of International Relations, Nicole Deitelhoff.
At the same time, she manages the business of the Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research.
There are also the general director of the Dresden State Art Collections, Marion Ackermann, the Frankfurt anti-Semitism researcher Julia Bernstein and the psychologist Marina Chernivsky.
She is a member of the body that advises the federal government in the fight against anti-Semitism.
Peter Jelavich, historian from Johns Hopkins University, Christoph Möllers, lawyer from Berlin's Humboldt University, and Facil Tesfaye from the University of Hong Kong were also appointed.
In the future, the scientists will be responsible for the initial inventory of the processes, structures and reception around the Documenta.
They should also analyze possible further anti-Semitic works and pieces already identified as anti-Semitic.
The committee was appointed by the supervisory board and the shareholders of the world art exhibition.
These are representatives of the state of Hesse and the city of Kassel.
The committee presents the results of its deliberations and positions to you.
After that, all other participants should enter into a dialogue about it.
"Artistic freedom is preserved, curatorial responsibility is and remains the explicit task of the artistic direction of Ruangrupa," the press release from Monday continued.
According to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Geselle, it is expected that references to possible anti-Semitic imagery and the promotion of Israel-related anti-Semitism will be investigated, taking artistic freedom into account.
His deputy Dorn notes that the anti-Semitic motifs seen several times prove the unbroken topicality and reproduction of anti-Semitism.
"The scientific analysis of other works with regard to anti-Semitic motifs will be important for us shareholders in the coming weeks." On this basis, lasting impulses for dealing with anti-Semitic processes in the cultural and art context could be gained and thus have an effect beyond the documenta.
With the criticism of Farenholtz, the expert panel quickly started its work.
Without explicitly mentioning the name, the panel's press release states that the public presentation of anti-Semitic works and the handling of them are rightly perceived as threatening by the Jewish community.
"It is all the more regrettable that the impact of the debate on the Jewish community has so far hardly been taken into account in the public statements on the documenta."
The experts are irritated that the management of the Documenta seems to be defining essential questions about how to deal with anti-Semitic art at the moment when the committee begins its work.
"The position she represents, that neither further works of art need to be removed due to anti-Semitic content nor that the works need to be systematically examined, contradicts a professional and open-ended dialogue," the experts believe.
"We reserve the right to formulate an independent assessment of these questions."
According to the FDP parliamentary group, the fact that the work is now beginning does not change the fact that anti-Semitic works of art continue to be shown in Kassel without comment.
Minister Dorn must end this as soon as possible, demanded MP Stefan Naas.
The AfD also reiterated its criticism.
According to MP Frank Gröbe, neither the state government nor the commission of experts are willing and able to influence the Ruangrupa curatorial collective and put a stop to open anti-Semitism under the guise of artistic freedom.