Germany's documenta, one of the biggest modern art exhibitions worldwide, has been welcoming a respectable number of visitors in its 15th edition this year despite anti-Semitic allegations regarding one of its artworks, which concluded with the resignation of the show's director.
"If we extrapolate the current attendance figures, it seems that overall we will only end up about 15 to 20% below the attendance figures for documenta 14," the show's interim managing director, Alexander Farenholtz, said ahead of the exhibit's closure on Sept. 25.
Farenholtz framed the figures as a relative success in view of pandemic restrictions still in place during the run-up to the exhibition that takes place in the city of Kassel in central Germany, and the subsequently limited travel possibilities.
Over 410,000 people visited documenta 15 during the first half of its 100-day run, according to the exhibition's own figures. By comparison, documenta 14 saw 445,000 visitors during its first 50 days in 2017.
In total, documenta 14 attracted around 891,500 visitors, while the provisional figures for this year are estimated at between 710,000 and 760,000 visitors, with final a visitor tally to be announced on Sept. 25.
