Documenta

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The Fridericianum during documenta (13)

Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany.

Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultural Show) which took place in Kassel at that time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was an attempt to bring Germany up to speed with modern art, both banishing and repressing the cultural darkness of Nazism.<ref name=":0" /> This first Documenta featured many artists who are generally considered to have had a significant influence on modern art (such as Picasso and Kandinsky). The more recent editions of the event feature artists based across the world, but much of the art is site-specific.

Every Documenta is limited to 100 days of exhibition, which is why it is often referred to as the "museum of 100 days".<ref>Arnold Bode coined this phrase for the first time in the prologue of the first volume of the catalogue: documenta III. Internationale Ausstellung; Catalogue: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Sketches; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Print; Kassel/Köln 1964; p. XIX</ref> Documenta is not a selling exhibition.

EtymologyEdit

Documenta, an invented word, reflects the intention of the exhibition (in particular of the first Documenta in 1955) to be a documentation of modern art which was not available for the German public during the Nazi era. Rumour spread from those close to Arnold Bode that it was relevant for the coinage of the term that the Latin word documentum could be separated into docere 'teach' and mens 'intellect', and therefore thought it to be a good word to describe the intention and the demand of Documenta.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Each edition of Documenta has commissioned its own visual identity, most of which have conformed to the typographic style of solely using lowercase letters, which originated at the Bauhaus.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

HistoryEdit

File:FridericianumBeuys kasselgalerie de.jpg

Stadtverwaldung by Joseph Beuys, oaktree in front of the museum Fridericianum, documenta 7

Art professor and designer Arnold Bode from Kassel was the initiator of the first Documenta. Originally planned as a secondary event to accompany the Bundesgartenschau, this attracted more than 130,000 visitors in 1955. The exhibition centred less on "contemporary art"—that is, art made after 1945—instead, Bode wanted to show the public works which had been known as "Entartete Kunst" in Germany during the Nazi era: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Blauer Reiter, Futurism and Pittura Metafisica. Therefore, abstract art, in particular the abstract paintings of the 1920s and 1930s, was the focus of interest in this exhibition.

Over time, the focus shifted to contemporary art. At first, the show was limited to works from Europe, but soon covered works by artists from the Americas, Africa and Asia. 4. documenta, the first ever to turn a profit, featured a selection of pop art, minimal art and kinetic art.<ref>The documenta IV Exhibition in Kassel (1968) German History in Documents and Images (GHDI).</ref> Adopting the theme of Questioning Reality – Pictorial Worlds Today, the 1972 Documenta radically redefined what could be considered art by featuring minimal and conceptual art, marking a turning point in the public acceptance of those styles.<ref name="online.wsj.com">Template:Cite news</ref> Also, it devoted a large section to the work of Adolf Wolfli, the great Swiss outsider, then unknown. Joseph Beuys performed repeatedly under the auspices of his utopian Organization for Direct Democracy.<ref>Roberta Smith (7 September 2007), "Documenta 5" The New York Times.</ref> Additionally, the 1987 Documenta show signaled another important shift with the elevation of design to the realm of art – showing an openness to postmodern design.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Certain key political dates for wide-reaching social and cultural upheavals, such as 1945, 1968 or 1976/1977, became chronological markers of documenta X (1997), along which art's political, social, cultural and aesthetic exploratory functions were traced.<ref>dX 1997 Template:Webarchive, documenta XII.</ref> Documenta11 was organized around themes like migration, urbanization and the post-colonial experience,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with documentary photography, film and video as well as works from far-flung locales holding the spotlight.<ref name="online.wsj.com"/> In 2012, documenta (13) was described as "ardently feminist, global and multimedia in approach and including works by dead artists and selected bits of ancient art".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>

CriticismEdit

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">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>Template:Cite journal</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), Documenta's director steps down over antisemitism scandal The Art Newspaper.</ref><ref name=Brown>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite 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), 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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>Template:Cite news</ref>

DirectorsEdit

The first four documentas, organized by Arnold Bode, established the exhibition's international credentials. Since the fifth Documenta (1972), a new artistic director has been named for each Documenta exhibition by a committee of experts. Documenta 8 was put together in two years instead of the usual five. The original directors, Edy de Wilde and Harald Szeemann, were unable to get along and stepped down. They were replaced by Manfred Schneckenburger, Edward F. Fry, Wulf Herzogenrath, Armin Zweite and Vittorio Fagone.<ref>Michael Brenson (15 June 1987), "Documenta 8, Exhibition In West Germany", The New York Times.</ref> Coosje van Bruggen helped select artists for documenta 7, the 1982 edition. documenta IX's team of curators consisted of Jan Hoet, Piero Luigi Tazzi, Denys Zacharopoulos and Bart de Baere.<ref>Michael Kimmelman (5 July 1992) "At Documenta, It's Survival Of the Loudest", The New York Times.</ref> For documenta X Catherine David was chosen as the first woman and the first non-German speaker to hold the post. It is also the first and unique time that its website Documenta x was conceived by a curator (swiss curator Simon Lamunière) as a part of the exhibition. The first non-European director was Okwui Enwezor for Documenta11.<ref>Jackie Wullschlager (19 May 2012) Vertiginous doubt Financial Times.</ref>

The salary for the artistic director of Documenta is around €100,000 a year.<ref>Julia Halperin, Gareth Harris (18 July 2014) How much are curators really paid? Template:Webarchive The Art Newspaper.</ref>

Title	Date	Director	Exhibitors	Exhibits	Visitors
Template:Sortdocumenta	16 July – 18 September 1955	Template:Sort Arnold Bode	148	670	130,000
Template:SortII. documenta	11 July – 11 October 1959	Template:SortArnold Bode, Werner Haftmann	338	1770	134,000
Template:Sortdocumenta III	27 June – 5 October 1964	Template:SortArnold Bode, Werner Haftmann	361	1450	200,000
Template:Sort4. documenta	27 June – 6 October 1968	Template:Sort24-strong documenta council	151	1000	220,000
Template:Sortdocumenta 5	30 June – 8 October 1972	Template:Sort Harald Szeemann	218	820	228,621
Template:Sortdocumenta 6	24 June – 2 October 1977	Template:Sort Manfred Schneckenburger	622	2700	343,410
Template:Sortdocumenta 7	19 June – 28 September 1982	Template:Sort Rudi Fuchs	182	1000	378,691
Template:Sortdocumenta 8	12 June – 20 September 1987	Template:Sort Manfred Schneckenburger	150	600	474,417
Template:Sortdocumenta IX	12 June – 20 September 1992	Template:Sort Jan Hoet	189	1000	603,456
Template:Sortdocumenta X	21 June – 28 September 1997	Template:Sort Catherine David	120	700	628,776
Template:Sortdocumenta11	8 June – 15 September 2002	Template:Sort Okwui Enwezor	118	450	650,924
Template:Sortdocumenta 12	16 June – 23 September 2007	Template:Sort Roger M. Buergel/Ruth Noack<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> \|\| 114 \|\| Template:Sortover 500 \|\| 754,301
Template:Sortdocumenta (13)	9 June – 16 September 2012	Template:Sort Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>\|\| \|\| 904,992<ref name="d13visitors">{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Sortdocumenta 14	8 April – 16 July 2017 in Athens, Greece; 10 June – 17 September 2017 in Kassel	Template:Sort Adam Szymczyk	more than 160	1500	339,000 in Athens 891,500 in Kassel
Template:Sortdocumenta fifteen	18 June 2022 – 25 September 2022 in Kassel	Template:Sort ruangrupa<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>\|\| more than 67<ref>Siddhartha Mitter (24 June 2022), Documenta Was a Whole Vibe. Then a Scandal Killed the Buzz. New York Times.</ref> \|\|
documenta 16	2027	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2012's edition was organized around a central node, the trans-Atlantic melding of two distinct individuals who first encountered each other in the "money-soaked deserts of the United Arab Emirates". As an organizing principle it is simultaneously a commentary on the romantic potentials of globalization and also a critique of how digital platforms can complicate or interrogate the nature of such relationships. Curatorial agents refer to the concept as possessing a "fricative potential for productive awkwardness," wherein a twosome is formed for the purposes of future exploration.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

VenuesEdit

Documenta is held in different venues in Kassel. Since 1955, the fixed venue has been the Fridericianum. The documenta-Halle was built in 1992 for documenta IX and now houses some of the exhibitions. Other venues used for Documenta have included the Karlsaue park, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, the Neue Galerie, the Ottoneum and the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof. Though Okwui Enezor notably tried to subvert the euro-centric approach Documenta had taken, he instigated a series of five platforms before the Documenta11 in Vienna, Berlin, New Delhi, St Lucia and Lagos, in an attempt to take Documenta into a new post-colonial, borderless space, from which experimental cultures could emerge. documenta 12 occupied five locations, including the Fridericianum, the Wilhelmshöhe castle park and the specially constructed "Aue-Pavillon", or meadow pavilion, designed by French firm Lacaton et Vassal.<ref>Stephan Valentin (12 June 2007), An art show in Kassel, Germany, rivals Venice Biennale International Herald Tribune.</ref> At documenta (13) in 2012 about a fifth of the works were unveiled in places like Kabul, Afghanistan and Banff, Canada.<ref name="Kelly Crow 2012"/>

There are also a number of works that are usually presented outside, most notably in Friedrichsplatz, in front of the Fridericianum and the Karlsaue park. To handle the number of artworks at documenta IX, five connected temporary "trailers" in glass and corrugated metal were built in the Karlsaue.<ref>Roberta Smith (22 June 1992), A Small Show Within an Enormous One The New York Times.</ref> For documenta (13), French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal constructed the temporary "Aue-Pavillon" in the park.

File:Fridericianum.jpg

View of the Friedrichsplatz with the Fridericianum (2nd Building from the left) and the Documenta ticket booth (right)

Permanent installationsEdit

File:Rahmenbau Komplettansicht documenta6.jpg

Rahmenbau (1977) by Haus Rucker und Co.

A few of the works exhibited at various documentas remained as purchases in Kassel museums. They include 7000 Eichen by Joseph Beuys; Rahmenbau (1977) by Haus-Rucker-Co; Laserscape Kassel (1977) by Horst H. Baumann; Traumschiff Tante Olga (1977) by Anatol Herzfeld; Vertikaler Erdkilometer by Walter De Maria; Spitzhacke (1982) by Claes Oldenburg; Man walking to the sky (1992) by Jonathan Borofsky; and Fremde (1992) by Thomas Schütte (one part of the sculptures are installed on Rotes Palais at Friedrichsplatz,<ref>Thomas Siemon (25 June 2015), Wieder aufgebaut: "Die Fremden" sind zurück in Kassel Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine.</ref> the other on the roof of the Concert Hall in Lübeck).

Documenta archiveEdit

The extensive volume of material that is regularly generated on the occasion of this exhibition prompted Arnold Bode to create an archive in 1961. The heart of the archive’s collection comes from the files and materials of the Documenta organization. A continually expanding video and image archive is also part of the collection as are the independently organized bequests of Arnold Bode and artist Harry Kramer.

ManagementEdit

VisitorsEdit

In 1992, on the occasion of documenta IX, for the first time in the history of Documenta, more than half a million people traveled to Kassel.<ref>d9 1992 Template:Webarchive, documenta XII.</ref> The 2002 edition of Documenta attracted 650,000 visitors, more than triple Kassel's population.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2007, documenta 12 drew 754,000 paying visitors, with more than one-third of the visitors coming from abroad and guests from neighboring Netherlands, France, Belgium and Austria among the most numerous.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2012, documenta (13) had 904,992 visitors.<ref name="d13visitors"/>

BudgetEdit

In 2007, half of Documenta's budget of 19 million euros ($25.7 million) came from the city of Kassel, the state of Hessen and Germany's Kulturstiftung des Bundes. The rest came from sponsors, donors and ticket sales.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Documenta 14’s budget was at 37 million euros ($40 million), spread between 2013 and 2018;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> by the end of 2017, its deficit was expected to reach 5.4 million euros.<ref name="theartnewspaper.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Overspending in Athens led to a liquidity shortfall of 7 million euros, forcing the shareholders of Documenta — the city of Kassel and the German state of Hesse — to step in with emergency loan guarantees worth 8 million euros.<ref name="theartnewspaper.com"/>