Sabine Schormann Documenta
Documenta has announced that Sabine Schormann will be its third managing director in less than a year after the company that runs the quinquennial German contemporary art exhibition ran into financial trouble last year.
On 1 November Schormann will replace Wolfgang Orthmayr, a producer of musicals who was appointed interim managing director in April. His beleaguered predecessor, Annette Kulenkampff, left her post before her contract ended as the result of a budget deficit of €5.4m following the 2017 edition.
“This decision is an important building block to ensure that Documenta 15 can take place as planned in 2022 […] and will stand on solid foundations,” says Boris Rhein, the culture minister of the state of Hesse, which is a shareholder of the company that runs Documenta.
For the past 18 years, Schormann has managed two Hanover-based organisations, Lower Saxony’s Sparkasse foundation and the VGH foundation, with a combined budget of €5m for cultural grants. One of her first tasks at Documenta will be to appoint an artistic director for the 2022 edition.
For the first time in Documenta’s 62-year history, the 2017 edition was spread over two locations: Kassel and Athens. Overspending in Athens caused the budget shortfall and forced Kassel and Hesse to step in with emergency loan guarantees.
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Wolfgang Orthmayr to replace Annette Kulenkampff, who left before her contract ended
CATHERINE HICKLEY
10th April 2018 10:18 GMT
The Fridericianum is the main venue of Documenta Documenta
Documenta announced that it has appointed Wolfgang Orthmayr as interim managing director from 1 April after Annette Kulenkampff, his beleaguered predecessor, left her post amid a budget fiasco at the company that manages the German contemporary art exhibition.
Orthmayr, 58, was previously the commercial director at Stage Entertainment GmbH, a producer of musicals. The city of Kassel, which hosts Documenta every five years, said Orthmayr’s appointment is only temporary and in the long term it plans to recruit someone “with relevant experience and competence in the field of cultural management”.
Kulenkampff left the post a year ahead of schedule, “in mutual agreement” with Kassel and the state of Hesse after the 2017 edition of Documenta notched up a deficit of €5.4m. For the first time in its 62-year history, the exhibition was equally spread over two locations; Kassel and Athens. Overspending in Athens caused the budget shortfall and forced Kassel and Hesse to step in with emergency loan guarantees.
“We are very happy to have Wolfgang Orthmayr as an interim managing director,” said Christian Geselle, the mayor of Kassel.
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Kassel seeks three new 'Documenta professors'
Scholars will conduct research for a new institute of the quinquennial show based in the city
CATHERINE HICKLEY
The Documenta exhibition has been held every five years since 1955 Mathias Voelzke
The German state of Hesse announced it is to finance three new professorships to research the history, impact and significance of the quinquennial Documenta exhibition at a new Documenta Institute planned for the city of Kassel.
The state has earmarked €180,000 in 2018 for the new positions and €360,000 from 2019. The university plans to advertise the jobs immediately, the state of Hesse said in a statement. The three professors will work closely with Nora Sternfeld, a professor specialised in Documenta at the Kassel School of Fine Arts, which is part of the city’s university.
“This expertise will keep alive the history and success of this global art exhibition outside the actual five-yearly exhibitions themselves,” says Boris Rhein, the Hesse minister for culture and science. “Together with the Documenta archive, the Documenta Institute and its research will turn the 60-year history of the exhibition into a slice of art history.”
The new institute is to be built in the north of Kassel near the university and is intended to host research, events, conferences and exhibitions studying the significance of Documenta in the contemporary art world as well as housing the Documenta archive.
The city has budgeted the construction of the new centre at €24m. The German government will stump up €12m, the state of Hesse will provide a further €6m, and the city will raise the remaining €6m. The centre will be managed by the Documenta team, the city of Kassel and the Fridericianum museum.
The Documenta exhibition has been held every five years since 1955. The 14th edition drew 891,500 visitors to Kassel last year.
