The general director of Documenta resigns after the controversy of the anti-Semitic mural

The former general director of Documenta Sabine Schormann.DPA via Europa Press

The general director of the contemporary art exhibition Documenta, Sabine Schormann, has resigned almost a month after the controversy over a mural that was covered with a black cloth to hide anti-Semitic images.

The exhibition's supervisory committee expressed its "deep dismay" on Saturday at the "clearly anti-Semitic" content of the work in question and announced that they had reached an agreement with Schormann to end her contract.

In the same statement, the committee assured that an interim director would be assigned to fill the position.

Meanwhile, the German Minister of Culture, Claudia Roth, supported Schormann's dismissal and called for an investigation into why the discord images were admitted in the first place.

When the controversy broke out, the Documenta organization argued that "it does not inspect art exhibitions in advance," as Schormann herself said.

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Anti-Semitic controversy in Documenta: a mural that includes offensive figures for Jews is covered with black cloth

The work of the Indonesian collective Taring Padi, a mural of 9 by 12 meters, showed an apocalyptic scene of civil war with protesters, demons, angels and policemen under a header that reads "The justice of the people".

The figures of a policeman with a pig's head, a Star of David and the word "Mossad" (the name of the Israeli intelligence service) on the helmet, and another that caricatured an Orthodox Jew portrayed with a yarmulke, vampire fangs, bloodshot eyes in blood and a cap that reads SS, were the ones that sparked the controversy.

A set of figures that "remind Goebbels propaganda," said the Israeli embassy in Berlin.

This group of artists attributed what happened to a misinterpretation of their work.

The installation, they said in a statement, "is part of a campaign against militarism and violence that we witnessed during the 32 years of Suharto's military dictatorship in Indonesia and his legacy, which continues to have an impact today."

The military figures refer to the political context of their country and its administration, they added.

“We are a progressive collective, committed to supporting and respecting diversity.

Our works do not contain anything that intends to portray any population in a negative way”, insisted the artists who, “as a sign of respect”, agreed to have their work covered.

One of the figures in the work 'The people's justice', by the Taring Padi collective, which shows a pig-faced soldier with the inscription "Mossad" on his helmet. UWE ZUCCHI (AFP)

The mural was covered up at the request of several representatives of the Jewish community and the Israeli embassy, ​​who expressed their disgust at the images exhibited at the 15th edition of the festival.

The mural was first exhibited at a festival in Australia in 2002 and has since gone through several exhibitions without causing any controversy, but it was the first time it had been exhibited in Europe.

The director of the Committee of American Jews in Berlin considers that from the organization "the problem has not yet been understood", while the Documenta committee, an appointment in which half of the budget comes from the federal budget, assures that they are aware of the “loss of confidence” that an incident like this entails.

The relativization of the Holocaust and anti-Semitic attitudes in general are closely watched in Germany, where it is an issue with clear connotations due to its 20th-century history.