The Finding Committee for the Artistic Direction of documenta fifteen expresses its support for the recent statement of ruangrupa, lumbung members, and contributing artists. The pressures that media and politicians have placed on the entire documenta team have become unbearable. We want to defend their extraordinary hard work and commitment with this statement.
We reject both the poison of antisemitism and its current instrumentalization, which is being done to deflect criticism of the 21st century Israeli state and its occupation of Palestinian territory. At the same time, we embrace documenta fifteen’s pluralism and the possibility to hear such a rich diversity of artistic voices from across the world for the first time. We defend the right of artists and their work to rethink, expose, and criticize political formulas and fixed patterns of thought. We believe this right is something to be cherished by those in public life who make exhibitions like documenta possible.
We continue to stand behind our selection of ruangrupa as the Artistic Direction for documenta fifteen, as we have throughout the entire process of its development and realization. We celebrate the hundreds of thousands of visitors who have seen, visited, and been enriched by the exhibition. We believe their voice should also be heard. We applaud the artists who have been resilient in the face of attacks on their integrity and have remained true to the principles of lumbung. We ask the supervisory board to ensure that documenta fifteen can remain open in its entirety until the planned end of the exhibition. We believe any failure to do so, and a capitulation to political interference, will be judged very harshly by history.
Signed, the Finding Committee:
Amar Kanwar, Charles Esche, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Frances Morris, Gabi Ngcobo, Jochen Volz, Philippe Pirotte, Ute Meta Bauer