Editing Documenta (section)

==Criticism==
Documenta typically gives its artists at least two years to conceive and produce their projects, so the works are often elaborate and intellectually complex.<ref name="Kelly Crow 2012">{{Cite web |last=Crow |first=Kelly |date=8 June 2012 |title=A Party, Every Five Years, for 750,000 Guests |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918204577448311957812128.html |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=WSJ |language=en-US}}</ref> However, the participants are often not publicised before the very opening of the exhibition. At ''documenta (13)'', the official list of artists was not released until the day the show opened.<ref name="vulture.com">{{Cite web |last=Saltz |first=Jerry |date=15 June 2012 |title=Jerry Saltz: Eleven Things That Struck, Irked, or Awed Me at Documenta 13 |url=https://www.vulture.com/2012/06/saltz-notes-on-documenta-13.html |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=Vulture |language=en-us}}</ref> Even though curators have often claimed to have gone outside the art market in their selection, participants have always included established artists. In the ''documenta (13)'', for example, art critic [[Jerry Saltz]] identified more than a third of the artists represented by [[Marian Goodman Gallery]] in the show.<ref name="vulture.com"/>

Documenta's decision to feature some of its shows outside of Germany, in peripheral contexts has sparked numerous critical discussions that reaches an apogee around documenta14, which partly took place in [[Athens]], Greece, in 2017. Various critics raised concerns about the ways in which the institution's endorsement of Athens as a place of resistance and novelty entailed a patronizing Orientalist stance, linked to new forms of tourism and the enjoyment of underdeveloped sites of "crisis".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kalantzis |first1=Konstantinos |title=The Indigenous Sublime Rethinking Orientalism and Desire from documenta 14 to Highland Crete |journal=Current Anthropology |date=2023 |doi=10.1086/728171 |s2cid=266120123 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/728171?journalCode=ca|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In 2022, Documenta caused three separate [[anti-Semitism]] controversies: one revolving around the banner ''People's Justice'' (2002) by the Indonesian collective [[Taring Padi]] that contained anti-Semitic imagery; another on the inclusion of the Palestinian collective Question of Funding in the exhibition; and, lastly, the inclusion of a 1988 Palestinian liberation movement brochure by Burhan Karkoutly titled ''Presence des Femmes''.<ref>Kabir Jhala (18 July 2022), [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/07/18/documentas-director-steps-down-over-antisemitism-scandal Documenta's director steps down over antisemitism scandal]&nbsp;''[[The Art Newspaper]]''.</ref><ref name=Brown>{{cite news|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/documenta-battered-by-scandals-gets-hit-with-yet-another-allegation-of-antisemitic-imagery-in-the-show-2152990|author=Kate Brown|date=July 28, 2022|title=Documenta, Battered by Scandals, Gets Hit With Yet Another Allegation of Antisemitic Imagery in the Show|work=ART News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/what-is-documenta-15-antisemitism-controversy-1234635001/|author=Alex Greenberger|date=July 22, 2022|title=Documenta's Anti-Semitism Controversy, Explained: How a German Art Show Became the Year's Most Contentious Exhibition|work=ART News}}</ref> Artist [[Hito Steyerl]] pulled her work from the exhibition in protest to the first two instances, with managing director Sabine Schormann's departure as a consequence.<ref>Alex Greenberger (16 July 2022), [https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/documenta-sabine-schormann-departure-antisemitism-controversies-1234634366/ Documenta Head Is Out Amid Anti-Semitism Controversies and Pressure from German Politicians] ''[[ARTnews]]''.</ref> In response to the controversy spurred by ''Presence des Femmes'', Documenta released a statement urging the artistic team to remove the drawings until they can be "appropriately contextualized"; scholars from the Archives of Women’s Struggles in Algeria stated: "[''Presence des Femmes''] was in solidarity by the Algerian women with the Palestinian people, in denouncing the crimes committed by the Israeli State. We would like this document, like many other texts or artworks in the world, to be placed in its historical and political context."<ref name=Brown />

In November 2023, Documenta received the resignation letter of the remaining curators María Inés Rodríguez, Simon Njami, Gong Yan and Kathrin Rhomberg, following the resignation of [[Bracha L. Ettinger]] and [[Ranjit Hoskote]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-17 |title=Documenta finding panel resigns out of 'grave concern' for show's future |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/11/17/documenta-finding-panel-resigns-out-of-grave-concern-for-shows-future |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events}}</ref> The letter stated: "In the current circumstances we do not believe that there is a space in Germany for an open exchange of ideas and the development of complex and nuanced artistic approaches that documenta artists and curators deserve."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Instagram |url=https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fmariainesrodriguez_%2F |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=www.instagram.com}}</ref>

Following the controversy, Documenta announced in November 2024 that [[Naomi Beckwith]], Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]], had been selected as the curator for the sixteenth edition.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sella |first=Adam |date=2024-12-18 |title=An American Curator Takes the Helm at Crisis-Hit Documenta |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/arts/design/naomi-beckwith-documenta-curator.html |access-date=2025-01-15 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> &nbsp;