Note on Documenta
History
of Documenta
The
first Document was organized in 1955 by the artist Arnold Bode which
wanted to offer a large exhibition on the art that the nazis banished
and repressed. From the beginning, Documenta has a consideration on
art history and especially the art that was exclude, forbidden or
marginalized. Documenta is not a selling exhibition but it’s
consider as strong critical and political engaged exhibition.
It’s
a exhibition which is organized every 5 years in Kassel, germany.
Every documenta is limited to 100 days of exhibition, which is why it
is often referred to as the "museum of 100 days".
From
Documenta 5, it’s a different artistic director which is selected
to direct Documenta.
-
documenta 5 (30 juin - 8 octobre 1972) : Harald Szeemann
-
documenta 6 (24 juin - 2 octobre 19774) : Manfred Schneckenburger
-
documenta 7 (19 juin - 28 septembre 1982) : Rudi Fuchs
-
documenta 8 (12 juin - 20 septembre 1987) : Manfred Schneckenburger
-
documenta IX (13 juin - 20 septembre 1992) : Jan Hoet
-
documenta X (21 juin - 28 septembre 1997) : Catherine David
-
documenta11 (8 juin - 15 septembre 2002) : Okwui Enwezor
-
documenta 12 (16 juin - 23 septembre 2007) : Roger Buergel
-
documenta 13 (9 juin - 16 septembre 2012) : Carolyn
Christov-Bakargiev
-
documenta 14 (8 avril - 17 septembre 2017) : Adam Szymczyk
Title :
Learning from Athens
There is something strange in the different
articles and texts about Learning from Athens. It's no one
talking about this title in connection to the main post-modern
architectural manifesto from Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and
Steven Izenour written in 1972 : Learning from Las Vegas.
Which is very similar in a way because is a retro-actif manifesto
(like also Delirious New York from Rem Koolhaas in 1978).
Retro-actif in the sens that everything is already here, we just have
to look at it and understand it which is also the statement of
Documanta 14 toward Athens and Art from the XX century. But the
strong different is that Learning from Las Vegas was looking
at the most capitalist city of United State and Learning from
Athens is looking at a city under multiple crises (economic,
politic, social and refugees). For me, there is a re-inforce of
Postmodernism through documenta 14.
This question of « learning » was
checked by multidisciplinary research platform called « Learning
from Documenta » directed Elpida Rikou (Art therorist) and
Eleana Yalouri (Anthropologist) which openedtwo years of research
program on Documenta 14 in Athens (october 2015 – october 2017).
Because in the notion of « learning » there is a
relationship between the observer and the observed which is never
neutral. They employ anthropological methods to understand and
analyze discourses, practices and other curatorial gestures and their
social signifiance in the jonction of local and international
politics that have accompanied Documenta’s arrival in Athens.
The
expansion institution
An other point, Documenta is a powerful
institution going to Athens in order to make a event. I think we have
to keep in mind that this situation was one of the greek crisis
element. Indeed in 2004, Athens hosted the Olympic Games -> 9
billion of euros spend for 2 weeks, which put the economy of Greece
in a very difficulte situation. And for some person, it was one of
the element of the greek crises.
The expansion of Documenta 14 already started
at Documenta 13. In this previous edition, Kassel was the main point
of the exhibition but it had four small satellite projects in Kabul,
Banff, Cairo, and Alexandria. Documenta 14 seems to be a natural
gesture in moving clearly outside of Athens by divided is exhibition
part in a equal way between two city.
But if we look at this gesture of expansion
of Documenta. We can see that it's a general strategy in Art
institution (private and public one) :
- like private art museum : Guggenheim museum
(New York museum since 1939, Bilbao museum since 1997, Abou Dabi
museum will open in 2018, Berlin museum 1997-2013, Las Vegas museum
couple of months in 2008, Helsinki museum abandoned project in 2016,
Guadalajara museum abandonned project in 2009, Vilnius abandoned
project in 2010)
- like private art fair : Art Basel (open in
1970 in Basel, in 2002 in Miami and in 2013 in Hong Kong)
- like private art book fair : Offprint
(support by Fondation Luma) (open in Paris since 2012, in London
since 2015 and have several projects of ephemeral library like Milano
and Amsterdam).
- like public museum : Centre Pompidou (Paris
since 1977, Metz since 2010, 2011-13 mobile museum in France,
2015-2020 ephemeral museum in Malaga, for 2020 opening of a new
museum in Bruxelles).
- like public museum again : Louvre (Paris
since 1793, Lens since 2012, Abou Dabi since 2017)
- like performing art festival : Bâtard in
Bruxelles and Amsterdam or Les urbaines in Lausane and Paris.
There is somehow a "brand-isation"
of Art Institute. When one institution get a value recogniazed, it
can expend itself to other place. Here we can see different
strategies in the expansion : to touch new field for Art Basel ;
decentralization for Centre Pompidou Metz and Louvre Lens ; political
deal for Louvre Abou Dabi and Guggemheim Abou Dabi. The construction
of Bilbao Guggenheim Museum was an internationale success for
redynamisation of a industrial city under crises. After Bilbao, many
city in the world try to reproce this strategy of city development
through big art institution.
But if we look at Documenta, the project to
go to Athens is not presented as an expansion strategy but more
curatorial gesture. This attitude is closer to some artistic gesture
like Biennale de Paris (bought by Alexandre Gurita in 2000) or the
Institute of Social Hypocrisy from 2009 to 2011 in Paris by Victor
Boulet). This gesture becomes a critic itself toward institution and
context.
Maybe the main problem with Documenta 14 on
this gesture is the unbalance of the two sites. One is a powerful
institution organized by the most powerful country in European Union,
on the other side Greek is a country under crises which was critized
inside the E.U. and taking over by E.U. to straighten up its
economy. So we can understand that Greece wasn’t fully agree with
this decision of hosting Documenta. Which is the first point where
the question of post-colonialism gesture was percise.
Also because of this gesture, Kassel hosted
less tourist and Documenta sailed 3 % less ticket than the
previous edition. Some critics percised this economy lost as a
element why the city of Kassel and the region of Hessel started to
complain about the budget.
Budget
Documenta
is an event managed
by the institution Documenta gGmH
which is a new caritatif organisation in Germany. Half of the price
comes from the city of Kassel, Land des Hessel (the region) and
Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Federal Cultural Fondation),
the second half come from the ticket sale,
the fund raising and the sponsorship.
If
we look at Documenta 13 (2012), the budget is 25,6 million euros.
Half (12,8 million euros) is cover by the ticket, fund raising and
the sponsorship, and the city of Kassel (4,4 million euros), Land des
Hesse (4,4 million euros) and German state (4 million euros).
And
it was the same budget for Documenta 12 in 2007.
The
budget for Documenta 14 was from the beginning more than the two
previous edition.
From
Artnews, they planed a budget of 29
million euros but only 10 % of
the budget was allowed to go to Athens so 2 million euros was dedided
to support the Athean part of the event. Then in fall 2016, the
budget was reevaluated to 34 million euros.
From
the NewYorkTime, the budget was from the beginning of 37 million
euros.
At
the end, Documenta 14 is accuse to have a deficite of 7 million
euros.
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