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documenta
is an exhibition of contemporary art in Kassel, Germany.
The first exhibitions took place 1955, first every four years,
since 1972 every five years. Duration of the exhibition is 100 days.
This year's documenta was shadowed in the beginning by three separate
anti-Semitism controversies. Please feel free to find more info in the newspapers.
In this posting I am showing you what we could see
in one day in our not planned tour through the quite huge area.
For those readers who do not know where Kassel lies.
Normally it takes 1,5 hours by train from Ffm to Kassel,
but our fast ICE train was broken and the IC substitute
did not have seats for all the passengers, meaning we had to
stand top the whole way, with 20 minutes delay on top.
Those with orange colours marked points are the exhibition
halls that we visited in six hours. My step counter got busy!
For documenta fifteen, the eastern part of Kassel moves increasingly
in the focus of documenta for the first time. Dominated by sprawling
factory and industrial areas the Bettenhausen district, with its former
indoor pool Hallenbad Ost and Hübner-Areal (...).
documenta15 is curated by the Indonesian artists' collective ruangrupa
and is based on the values and ideas of lumbung.
lumbung is the Indonesian word for a communal rice-barn, where
the surplus harvest is stored for the benefit of the community.
Traditionally we entered first this classical hall in the city center
with the most difficult name FRIDERICIANUM.
Ausstellungsorte sind Treffpunkte, Diskussionsforen und Lernorte.
Aus Ausstellungshallen werden Wohnzimmer, die Künstler*innen
entscheiden gemeinsam über die Nutzung der Orte. So wird die
Verwurzelung künstlerischer Praxis im täglichen Leben erfahrbar.
Viele Beiträge der lumbung member und lumbung-Künstler*innen
entwickeln und verändern sich während der Ausstellungslaufzeit.
Veranstaltungen, wie beispielsweise Workshops, Performances,
Vorträge und Filmscreenings sind für viele der künstlerischen
Beiträge essenziell. Aus diesem Grund ist die documenta fifteen nicht statisch.
Indoors collectivism, artsy garbage ... Well, I would recommend
to visit this hall at the end of your visit.
In the huge children's drawing-crafting-playing corner
there was a reminder of those days when people still wrote letters.
The effort you put on the writing, or creating, as here,
and the excitement when you get a letter!
There was a big green box for this action.
Knives in the documenta Halle.
Collective art in the documenta Halle.
* ... artists from Cuba that produce counter-narratives of Cuban art ...
Asian mix. And very mixed methods.
* Britto Arts Trust is a collective from Dhaka, Bangladesh,
that focuses on nutritional policies and communities suffering
the effects of industrialization.
* ... a skateboard ramp made available to Kassel’s skater scene...
No Hollywood, nor Bollywood but
WAKALIWOOD!!!
Please enter the movie theatre here.
Be aware of some violent action, in the movie, of course.
Wakaliga Uganda is not only a movie factory, but also an artistic and social
experiment. In one of the poorest areas of Kampala, Isaac Nabwana created
dozens of films within only ten years. Working as actors for Wakaliga Uganda
keeps many teenagers from all over the country away from alcohol and drugs.
They train in martial arts, create equipment to use on set, and act under
the eyes of Wakaliga’s residents.
Hallenbad Ost.
And yes, this used to be a public swimming pool.
Banners, woodcut posters, and wayang kardus (life-sized cardboard puppets),
as well as the ever popular Dendang Kampungan music group are
Taring Padi’s artistic formulas to agitate, educate, and organise themselves,
their community, and diverse solidarity actions they are involved in.
Read more:
So many fists.
In the Hübner Areal there was quite big artsy shop.
Take a seat, enjoy ... video art.
Yaya Coulibaly: The Wall of Puppets, 2022
Fondation Festival sur le Niger
(Founded in 2009 with the aim to sustain and further develop the advances
the Festival sur le Niger, the largest cultural event in Mali, has made
for the arts in Ségou and beyond.)
For me this documenta is more like an ethnological collection.
Every now and then one or two "real" art works in between.
And another movie theatre. Not just small videos
but real big screens with longer stories.
Here, in the ground floor finally some art objects.
Amol K Patil
(* 1987 Mumbai, India.)
Sweep Walkers. 2022
Installation, sculptures, paintings, performance
Mostly very funny objects, too!
This Kunigundis church was the exhibition area for art from Haiti.
Quite an interesting hall.
Die 1927 fertiggestellte römisch-katholische Kirche St. Kunigundis
im Stadtteil Bettenhausen gilt als erste Kirche in Spannbetonbauweise
und steht daher unter Denkmalschutz. Den Zweiten Weltkrieg überstand
das Bauwerk praktisch unbeschadet.
Oh, the English version:
St. Kunigundis Roman Catholic Church, completed in 1927 in the district of
Bettenhausen, is thought to be the first church built in Germany with
prestressed concrete and is therefore listed on the historic register.
The building survived World War II practically undamaged.
Atis Rezistans (Resistance Artists)
is a dynamic group of majority-class artists working in the Grand Rue
neighborhood of downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Haiti.
Vielen Dank K für die Kunstreise nach Kassel!
Just wondering if instead of bringing this garden garbage bag
away I just emptied it on our terrace and everybody could
walk around and kick any object you wanted, same time drumming
on empty plastic bottles. Would you call it art? Would you really?
🎨
Documenta15 until September 25, 2022.
Recommendation:
if possible, stay at least two days,
take your time.
Oderazzi posting of 13.03.2011!
My "friend" Validimir also went to Kassel:
