A number of arts professionals have received fake emails inviting them to participate in Documenta, the prestigious quinquennial contemporary art exhibition whose 15th edition is scheduled to take place in 2022 in the German city of Kassel.
By yesterday, Documenta knew of 32 such fake invitations. “Unfortunately we don’t know yet who sent them,” said a Documenta spokeswoman. “We are in contact with experts, but the emails are very well encrypted. Some recipients have noticed that the invitations are not genuine, but others have not and of course it is a great disappointment to them when they find out. We feel very sorry about this.”
Documenta has published a warning on its website, requesting any museum staff, curators, dealers and artists who receive an email discussing participation in 2022 to contact the general coordinator, Andrea Linnenkohl, to check whether it originated from the Documenta artistic team.
Documenta 15 is to be curated by Ruangrupa, an Indonesian artists’ cooperative with ten members and a focus on contemporary urban issues and global collaboration. The collective was founded in 2000 in Jakarta.