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Documenta visitors stand in Hallenbad-Ost, where the Indonesian artist collective Taring Padi is exhibiting.
Photo: Uwe Zucchi / picture alliance / dpa
A research project is to examine the anti-Semitism debate surrounding documenta fifteen in Kassel.
»In the last few months we have seen how deadlocked the debate has become.
With the study, we want to analyze what causes this polarization, what basic conflicts it reveals and how organizers of international art and culture festivals can react to such conflicts in the future," said Meron Mendel, director of the Anne Frank educational institution, according to a statement on Monday in Frankfurt.
The educational institution, the Documenta Institute and the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences are involved in the project.
The study, led by Mendel and the sociologist and founding director of the Documenta Institute, Heinz Bude, is scheduled to run until the end of 2023.
The basis is, among other things, the questioning and observation of visitors and participants and the analysis of the public discourse.
The 15th edition of the art exhibition, which ended recently, was shaken before and during its run by repeated accusations of anti-Semitism.
Shortly after the opening in mid-June, a work with anti-Semitic imagery was discovered and dismantled.
Even after that, works with anti-Jewish stereotypes were discovered.
xvc/dpa