The culture manager Andreas Hoffmann becomes the new managing director of the Documenta in Kassel. The documenta announced on Thursday that he will take up his position at the most well-known show for contemporary art on May 1st. Hoffmann, born in 1971, is currently still the managing director of the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg. Until he takes over the office, Ferdinand von Saint André will continue to manage the business. He was hired as interim managing director after the end of Documenta Fifteen in September. Previously, cultural manager Alexander Farenholtz had temporarily taken over the business after the general director of the Documenta, Sabine Schormann, resigned from her position a month after the start of the show. The trigger was the scandal surrounding Documenta artworks, which had been interpreted as anti-Semitic. “The personnel decision for the new managing director also sets the course for the future of the Documenta in Kassel,” said the Documenta Supervisory Board Chairman, Lord Mayor Christian Geselle (SPD), and Hesse’s Minister of Art Angela Dorn (Greens).
The next few weeks and months are likely to be much more decisive for the future of the Documenta. At the end of January, the commission of experts set up to deal with the question of anti-Semitic works of art intends to present its final report. In the meantime, the Ministry of Culture is examining how the federal government can regain its lost influence on the documenta. That also depends on whether Kassel’s Lord Mayor and Documenta Supervisory Board Chairman Christian Geselle will be re-elected in the Kassel mayoral election in March. So far, journeyman has resisted the federal government having more say.