An exhibition of labor by Marisa Merz, initially scheduled to open this fall on the Fridericianum museum in Kassel, Germany, was canceled by the Italian artist’s daughter in protest of Documenta’s newly instated Code of Conduct. The code has sparked cultural controversy throughout Europe over its definition of antisemitism, which critics warn might penalize inventive expression.
Marisa Merz (1926–2019) was the one lady among the many core group related to the influential Arte Povera motion, whose artists made sculptures from on a regular basis supplies as an alternative of ones sometimes related to tremendous artwork. Her exhibition was scheduled to open in August on the Fridericianum, which acts because the historic anchor of Documenta throughout the quinquennial’s run and mounts main surveys when that pageant isn’t going down.
Beatrice Merz, daughter of the artist duo Mario and Marisa Merz and president of the Fondazione Merz in Turin, advised Monopol journal on Thursday that she known as off the exhibition as a result of she opposed Documenta’s adoption of the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Till this week, the exhibition’s cancelation was not publicly identified; it appeared on a 2025 calendar that was launched by the Fridericianum final December. The museum ended up changing the deliberate Marisa Merz present with a Robert Grosvenor survey.
Underneath the IHRA definition of antisemitism, criticism of Israel or Zionism could possibly be counted as a type of prejudice. Documenta adopted the coverage after its controversial 2022 version, which featured artworks that German politicians denounced as antisemitic. Many have frightened that, in adopting the IHRA definition, Documenta will now restrict freedom of expression at its 2027 version.
“A collaboration with the Museum Fridericianum would have meant accepting the museum’s code of conduct, which makes use of the IHRA definition of antisemitism—a definition with which I don’t agree in each respect,” Beatrice Merz mentioned. “In my opinion, it might have been extra acceptable to make use of the JDA, the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. For that reason, as president of the Fondazione Merz, I felt it was proper to cancel the exhibition undertaking. I’m satisfied that artwork shouldn’t be restricted by borders and, above all, have to be freed from prejudice.”
Andreas Hoffmann, managing director of Documenta and the Fridericianum, confirmed the cancelation in a press release to Monopol, stating, “Discussions with the Fondazione Merz revealed that the framework for the deliberate exhibition that includes works by Marisa Merz was not totally appropriate. We respect the Fondazione Merz’s choice to not pursue the exhibition additional.”
The cancelation is the most recent signal that Documenta 15, the present that came about in 2022, has a legacy that continues to be divisive. At that present, a monumental mural containing antisemitic caricatures went on view to the general public earlier than being swiftly eliminated, producing a scandal that prompted a authorities inquiry into how the work handed Documenta’s vetting course of. Within the months that adopted, the destiny of the state-funded present appeared unsure.
Documenta is hardly the one German establishment to implement a brand new definition of antisemitism since 2023. The German Bundestag additionally formally adopted the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism in 2024, regardless of opposition from many artists and lecturers in Germany.
In his assertion, Hoffmann mentioned that the Documenta Code of Conduct was binding for the establishment’s staff, not for the exhibition’s inventive group or associates.
“Inventive freedom applies with out restriction to curatorial work,” he mentioned. “Documenta gGmbH ensures inventive freedom inside the framework of the legal guidelines relevant in Germany. Insofar as Documenta deems inventive expressions incompatible with the rules set out on this Code of Conduct, it reserves the appropriate to touch upon its ensuing place and, if obligatory, to clarify it within the quick visible context of the exhibited artworks.”
ARTnews has contacted the inspiration and museum for remark.
