The Controversy over documenta fifteen - Background, Interpretation, and Analysis
In the summer of 2022, the global art exhibition documenta in Kassel ignited major controversies on several levels. With this symposium on documenta fifteen, the HFBK Hamburg aims to analyze the background and context, foster dialogue between different viewpoints, and enable a debate that explicitly addresses anti-Semitism in the field of art.
Which historical-political continuities can be discerned in the genesis of documenta? What was negotiated in the debate beyond artistic strategies and the curatorial concept? How can we argue with one another publicly in a narrow field of discourse? The symposium offers space for divergent positions and aims to open up perspectives for the present and future of exhibition making.
With Reza Afisina, René Aguigah, Saba-Nur Cheema, Iswanto Hartono, Gilly Karjevsky, Martin Köttering, Oliver Marchart, Michaela Melián, Meron Mendel, Hestu Nugroho, Carsten Probst, Doron Rabinovici, Miriam Rürup, Ralf Schlüter, Nora Sternfeld, Natan Sznaider, Myropi-Margarita Tsomou, Wolfgang Ullrich, Julia Voss, Michael Wildt, Mi You, Jürgen Zimmerer
The symposium was conceived in consultation with Meron Mendel and Nora Sternfeld.
Recording for listening in the HFBK-Mediathek
Detailed information about the speakers can be found here.
Program, Wednesday, 1.2.2023
- 6 p.m.
Impulse, Katharina Fegebank ( Senator for Science, Research and Equality and 2nd Mayor of Hamburg)
Introduction, Martin Köttering (president, HFBK Hamburg) - 6:30 p.m.
Keynote Tolerance of ambiguity on trial. documenta fifteen and the Jewish question, Natan Sznaider (professor of Sociology, The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo) - 7:30 p.m.
Panel Antisemitism in the art field. Historical-political perspectives on the documenta, Oliver Marchart (professor of political theory at the University of Vienna), Meron Mendel (director of the Bildungsstätte Anne Frank in Frankfurt am Main and professor of transnational social work at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences), Julia Voss (art historian, historian of science, art critic, and member of the executive committee of the German Historical Museum (DHM)), Moderation: Carsten Probst (art historian and cultural journalist, Berlin)
Schedule, Thursday, 2.2.2023
- 10 a.m.
Talk documenta fifteen from Indonesian perspective, Reza Afisina (artist, member of ruangrupa and DAAD guest professor, HFBK Hamburg), Hestu A. Nugroho (artist, member of Taring Padi, Berlin), moderation: Kate Brown (curator, art journalist and Europe editor, Artnet News) - 12 noon
Panel Antisemitism and postcolonial research: A (global) history debate, Michaela Melián (artist and professor of Time-based Media, HFBK Hamburg), Miriam Rürup (Direktorin Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum, Professorin für europäisch-jüdische Studien, Universität Potsdam), Michael Wildt (Professor i.R. für Deutsche Geschichte im 20. Jahrhundert mit Schwerpunkt im Nationalsozialismus, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Jürgen Zimmerer (professor of global history with a focus on Africa and colonial history at the University of Hamburg), moderation: René Aguigah (head of literature department at Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Berlin) - 3 p.m.
Talk Cultural production between dialogue, criticism and boycott, Saba-Nur Cheema (political scientist and researcher at the Goethe University in Frankfurt on anti-Semitism in educational contexts), Doron Rabinovici (writer and historian, Vienna), moderation: Nora Sternfeld (art educator and professor of Art Education, HFBK Hamburg) - 5 p.m.
Panel Art as social practice – artistic paradigm shift through the documenta fifteen?, Iswanto Hartono (artist, member of ruangrupa and DAAD guest professor, HFBK Hamburg), Gilly Karjevsky (curator and guest professor of Social Design, HFBK Hamburg), Nora Sternfeld (art educator and professor of Art Education, HFBK Hamburg), Margarita Tsomou (curator at HAU Hebbel am Ufer and professor of contemporary theater practice at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences), Wolfgang Ullrich (art historian and cultural scientist, Leipzig), moderation: Ralf Schlüter (cultural journalist, Berlin)