documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH is a non-profit organization supported and funded by the City of Kassel and the State of Hesse.

In 1955, the Kassel painter and academy professor Arnold Bode endeavored to bring Germany back into dialogue with the rest of the world after the end of World War II, and to connect the international art scene through a “presentation of twentieth century art.” He founded the “Society of Western Art of the 20th Century” in order to present art that had been deemed by the Nazis as degenerate as well as works from classical modernity that had never been seen in Germany in the destroyed Museum Fridericianum. The first documenta was a retrospective of works from major movements (Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, the Blaue Reiter, Futurism) and brilliant individualists such as Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Hans Arp, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, and Henry Moore. In this journey through the art of the first fifty years of the century, German founders of modern art such as Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, or Max Beckmann were presented alongside classics of modernism.

An enormous hunger to compensate for the lack of information about international tendencies in art motivated 130,000 visitors to come to Kassel for the exhibition, which acted as both a survey and a forum for contemporary art. Encouraged by this unexpected success, Bode planned a second exhibition in 1959, thus establishing the exhibition cycle of documenta. Since 1959, the exhibition has been organized by a limited liability company with the City of Kassel and State of Hesse as shareholders. Arnold Bode led the exhibition up until documenta 4 in 1968, in cooperation with art historians such as Werner Haftmann, Will Grohmann, Werner Schmalenbach, and Max Imdahl. documenta increasingly became a seismograph of developments in contemporary art.

A new format for the exhibition’s organization started in 1972, with Harald Szeemann appointed as “Secretary General.” On behalf of the board of documenta gGmbH, an international jury is assembled to appoint the Artistic Direction for each exhibition. In 1997, Catherine David became the first woman to direct documenta. Each documenta – including documenta 14 – takes its character from the ideas and concept of its Artistic Direction, and is therefore not only a forum for current trends in contemporary art, but a place where innovative and standards-setting exhibition concepts are trialed.

In each edition, documenta has played a leading role in taking the international discourse about art in new directions. Over the past decades, documenta has established itself as an institution that goes far beyond a survey of what is currently happening, inviting the attention of the international art world every five years for this "museum of 100 days." The discourse and the dynamics of the discussion surrounding each documenta reflects and challenges the expectations of society about art.

The Fridericianum was founded in 1779 as one of the first public museums in the world. Since 1988 it has been an internationally renowned art gallery. A broad spectrum of contemporary art, from new discoveries to more established works, is displayed in over 2,000 square meters of exhibition space. Moritz Wesseler has been director of the Fridericianum since November 2018, following Veit Loers (1987–1995), René Block (1997–2006), Rein Wolfs (2008–2013) and Susanne Pfeffer (2013–2017). His program focuses on artists who have not yet been offered an institutional platform in Germany as well as historical works worthy of rediscovery. The program kicked off in June 2019 with solo presentations by Lucas Arruda and Ron Nagle. These were followed in October 2019 by a comprehensive exhibition of the work of Rachel Rose and in February 2020 by the first and largest European retrospective in over thirty years on the life and work of Forrest Bess.

The exhibitions are accompanied by an extensive education and mediation program, the content of which is closely related to each show. These programs are individually tailored for different age and interest groups and appeal to both a wide audience and art professionals.

Alongside this programming, a multifaceted lineup of events makes the Fridericianum a lively place of exchange on contemporary cultural production. The museum regularly invites international artists to create live events using varied formats, including talks, performances, and film screenings.

The documenta archiv was founded by Arnold Bode. At the beginning of the 1960s, the inventor of the documenta wanted to continue the art show with an institution at its side that would be both the academic backbone and the memory of past exhibitions for the organizers. In 1961, the documenta archiv, initially a municipal institution, began its work. Since then, the multimedia holdings of this versatile repository of knowledge have grown steadily with each successive edition of documenta. In a symbolic act, the documenta archiv was handed over to documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH on 15 July 2015. The aim is to raise the international profile of this unique institution.

As one of the most important archivs on contemporary art, it is now responsible for the production, documentation, archiving and scientific processing of text, image and multimedia sources relating to the major exhibition in Kassel and is closely linked to the artistic-curatorial, organizational, and technical teams of documenta and Museum Fridericianum.

As a member of the Arbeitskreis selbstständiger Kultur-Institute e.V. (AsKI), the documenta archiv has grown into an active research and art institution that initiates exhibition and other research projects with national and international partners and invites artistic interventions along its own objects - a place of interdisciplinary documenta research for students, fellows and visiting scholars from all over the world. The focus is on the art system of the 20th and 21st centuries, on object- and material-based questions concerning contemporary arts, the history of exhibition practice and its forms of presentation mediated by the media. Special fields of research concern the boundaries of the documentary in the fields of photography, film and the digital arts and humanities. The current focus is on the early documenta exhibitions, their organizational and personnel structures intertwined with the art business, and the mechanisms of art historical canonization processes.

The core of the documenta archiv is formed by the original documents produced during the preparation of the exhibition and the ongoing documenta. These include analogue and digital documents, e-mails, chats or classic correspondence, sketches, concepts, invitations, flyers, press material, websites, photo and video documentation, art objects and much more. The archiv's media collection alone contains around 40,000 analogue and 45,000 digital images, 5,000 videos and 650 audio recordings of the works and projects of the artists involved. In addition, there is a comprehensive press archive: around 45,000 press folders and 660 files on individual artists as well as around 250,000 systematically collected newspaper cuttings reflect the history of documenta.

In addition, the documenta archiv houses one of the largest special libraries for modern art in Germany. The art library contains around 120,000 volumes, 71,000 of which are exhibition catalogues alone. The so-called ephemera are of particular importance: Brochures, leaflets, invitation cards, private prints, academic writings and gallery catalogues. The documenta archiv is constantly expanding its holdings by acquiring important estates and bequests of documenta artists, curators and key players in the history of art and exhibitions. The centrepieces are the bequests of Arnold Bode, which include correspondence as well as numerous paintings, drawings and design objects, and of the artist and university lecturer Harry Kramer: kinetic sculptures, models, sketches and numerous writings. One of the most recent additions is the extensive estate of the theorist and artist Bazon Brock.

www.documenta-archiv.de

The documenta Institut is being developed in a cooperation between the State of Hesse, the City of Kassel, documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH and the University of Kassel with Kunsthochschule Kassel with financial support for the building project from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The acclaimed sociologist Prof. Dr. Heinz Bude was appointed Founding Director of the documenta Institut.

The starting point for the documenta Institut is the holdings of the documenta archiv, which is being developed into an extramural research institut. The documenta archiv was founded in 1961 by Arnold Bode and is dedicated to the archiving, documentation and scholarly processing of text and image sources on modern and contemporary art, in particular the documenta exhibitions that have taken place since 1955. In addition to the documenta documents, the holdings include extensive press, image and audiovisual media collections, a unique art library and relevant bequests and estates.

The documenta Institut will initially be founded under the umbrella of documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH and is intended to act in a cross-disciplinary manner to stimulate, conduct and further develop research related to the international exhibition business and documenta and to promote its public exposure.

www.documenta-institut.de

The documenta Halle is an exhibition and event venue on Friedrichsplatz in Kassel that was designed and realized in 1992 by the architectural office “Jourdan & Müller (PAS)”. Today, it is owned by the state of Hesse and is managed by documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH.

The design by architects Jourdan and Müller emerged as the winner of a nationwide tender at the end of 1989. It was the only one of the 137 submissions to envisage a location parallel to the existing state theater sitting on the edge of the Aue slope. The result was a multifunctional building offering exhibition spaces of varying size and quality. With the exception of Cabinet 4 at the eastern end of the hall, all exhibition spaces are united by a uniformly high flat roof, which is only topped by the two pitch-roofed skylights in Cabinets 1–3 and the High Hall. This results in exhibition spaces with a height of up to around 11 meters. The architecture of documenta Halle is defined by three elements: glass, steel and concrete. The ensuing reduced spatial impression gives each exhibition / event enough space to unfold.

The hall offers 1400 m² of exhibition space and around 700 m² of other usable ancillary space for offices, a depot, and a catering area. In each documenta year, the hall is available to the exhibition organizers. Outside of this period, documenta Halle is used for numerous events of all kinds – from congresses and conferences, presentations and lectures to evening events and functions.

Latest News
Further information on renting

International Friends of documenta is a group composed of patrons of art in the traditional sense. It brings together people from all over the world who are devoted to promoting contemporary art at the international level and realizing the objectives and values of documenta. Their efforts are focused on supporting and assisting the artistic direction who radically redefine and realize each successive exhibition.

International Friends of documenta regards itself as a supporting network whose members meet regularly on various occasions and follow the progress of planning for each upcoming documenta exhibition. Members are invited to participate by the documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH.

With immediate effect, the Scientific Advisory Board will advise and support the Supervisory Board and the Management Board of documenta gGmbH on a technical and scientific level. Its members will address current social and academic discourses within the specific context of documenta gGmbH and harness these for the further development of documenta. They will promote the professional and curatorial networking of documenta gGmbH while contributing their own and other relevant international, outward-looking and pluralistic perspectives from science and research.

In January 2025, Tania Coen-Uzzielli, Nicole Deitelhoff, Susanne Gaensheimer, Diane Lima, Christoph Menke, and Thomas Sparr were appointed as members of the newly founded Scientific Advisory Board for a five-year term by the shareholders’ meeting, based on the proposal of the Supervisory Board and in consultation with the Management Board.

Members of the Scientific Advisory Board of documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH

Tania Coen-Uzzielli serves as Director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art since January 2019. Under her leadership, the museum drew over a million visitors annually and has been recognized by The Art Newspaper as one of the world’s top 100 museums for four consecutive years. Prior to her tenure at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Coen-Uzzielli held the position of Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. There, she curated several exhibitions and led significant projects, including developing and curating the Synagogue Route installation, a celebrated feature inaugurated in 2010. In 2015, she curated the multidisciplinary exhibition A Brief History of Humankind, inspired by Yuval Noah Harari’s bestseller Sapiens: Brief History of Humankind which later traveled to the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. She further co-curated the exhibition In Statu Quo: Architecture of Negotiation in the Israeli Pavilion at the 16th Venice Biennale of Architecture. Coen-Uzzielli holds a BA and MA in Art History and Archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Nicole Deitelhoff is Professor of International Relations and Theories of Global Order at Goethe University Frankfurt. As Managing Director of the Leibniz Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), she heads the research area International Institutions. She is also the current co-spokesperson of the Frankfurt branch of the Research Institute Social Cohesion (Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenarbeit – FGZ) and of the research initiative ConTrust: Trust in Conflict – Political Life under Conditions of Uncertainty. Her research focuses on such fields as contestation and crises of institutions and norms, the foundations of political rule and its legitimization, forms of opposition and dissidence as well as democracy and cohesion. Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine in 2022, Deitelhoff has increasingly appeared as an expert in public debates. In 2022, she chaired the Scientific Advisory Panel of documenta fifteen, consisting of Prof. Dr. Marion Ackermann, Prof. Dr. Julia Bernstein, Marina Chernivsky, Prof. Peter Jelavich, Christoph Möllers, and Facil Tesfaye.

Susanne Gaensheimer has been Director of the Kunstsammlung NRW in Düsseldorf since 2017. She has realized numerous exhibitions on international artists at K20 and K21 and renewed the collection in the spirit of polyphony. From 2009 to 2017, she was Director of the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, whose branch location MMK 2 she founded. As curator of the German Pavilion at the 54th and 55th Venice Biennale, she presented Christoph Schlingensief (Golden Lion) in 2011 and Ai Weiwei, Romuald Karmakar, Santu Mofokeng and Dayanita Singh in 2013. Previously, she was Director of the Modern and Contemporary Art Collection at Lenbachhaus in Munich (2002-2008) and Director of the Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster (1999-2001). Susanne Gaensheimer has been an Honorary Professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main since 2016. She lends her expertise sitting on influential committees, including the jury for the Turner Prize 2013, the Selection Committee for the curators of the 7th and 8th Berlin Biennale and the Finding Committee for the curators of documenta 14. 2023 saw her launch the K21 Global Art Award, which will be presented to international artists for the third time now in 2025.

Diane Lima is a Brazilian curator, scholar, and key black feminist voice in Latin American art. She has organized and collaborated on a series of exhibitions, most recently the 35th São Paulo Biennial – choreographies of the impossible (2023), the retrospective of Paulo Nazareth at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City (2024), and the 3rd Frestas Triennial (2020/2021). Lima also organized Absent Dialogues at Itaú Cultural (2016/2017), a landmark interdisciplinary program that shaped Brazil’s anticolonial discourse. In 2021, she received the Ford Foundation Global Fellowship, recognizing her social justice leadership. Lima is the editor of Negros na Piscina: Arte Contemporânea, Curadoria e Educação (Blacks in the Pool: Contemporary Art, Curatorship, and Education) (2024), a retrospective of the last ten years about the debate around raciality and art. In 2024, Lima was a Guest Professor at UNAM in Mexico City and currently serves as Programming Director for the ESAP Fellowship 2025 by the A&L Berg Foundation, supporting professional development for Latinx curators in the U.S.

Christoph Menke is a German philosopher and Germanist and has been Professor of Philosophy in Frankfurt am Main since 2009. He is considered a key exponent of the contemporary Frankfurt School. Menke is a member of the Normative Orders Research Center and co-editor of the European Journal of Philosophy. He has written numerous acclaimed books on aesthetics – such as Kraft. Ein Grundbegriff der ästhetischen Anthropologie (Force: A Fundamental Concept of Aesthetic Anthropology) – and political philosophy such as Kritik der Rechte (Critique of Rights) and Recht und Gewalt (Law and Violence). His most recent book Theorie der Befreiung (2022) (Theory of Liberation) was widely discussed in the press and social media beyond the sphere of philosophy. Christoph Menke was a participant in documenta 13 (2012).

Thomas Sparr is an author, literary scholar, and works as Editor-at-Large at Suhrkamp Publishing House. After studying literature and philosophy in Marburg, Hamburg, and Paris, he worked at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the city’s Leo Baeck Institute from 1986 to 1989 and subsequently at the German Literature Archive in Marbach. From 1990 to 1998, he was head of the Jewish publishing house Jüdischer Verlag and chief editor of publisher Siedler Verlag. In May 2024, together with Amir Eshel, he published Deutsche und Juden. Dokumentation of eine Debatte (On the unresolved debate on Germans and Jews). His other publications include Ich will fortleben, auch nach meinem Tod (2023), which fills a gap in the narrative about Anne Frank, Todesfuge. Biographie eines Gedichts (2020), Hotel Budapest, Berlin. Von Ungarn in Deutschland (2021), and Grünewald im Orient: Das deutsch-jüdische Jerusalem (2018) which appears in English translation under the title German Jerusalem: The Remarkable Life of a German-Jewish Neighborhood in the Holy City.

documenta is one of the most important exhibitions of contemporary art worldwide and, as such, has a special responsibility as regards sustainability and seeks to act as a role model. We see sustainable action as an important cross-cutting task and for us it goes far beyond environmental concerns. The most important benchmark for all our efforts is the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH is guided by the three-pillar model of sustainability anchored in the Agenda which includes ecological, economic, and social aspects.

The documenta 15 sustainability concept

In line with ruangrupa’s artistic concept a holistic approach to sustainability was taken for documenta 15. Sustainability was incorporated into all areas of the exhibition’s planning and implementation. Aside from addressing ecological factors there was also a focus on cultural, social, political, and economic aspects. For ruangrupa, togetherness and sharing as well as the exchange of knowledge are essential prerequisites for sustainable development.

Within these areas of activity, various measures and projects were implemented, some examples of which are listed below:

• The Sustainability Euro in the ticket which generated a total of 375,000 euros for reforestation projects in Indonesia and Germany
• The Solidarity Ticket, which was donated by one visitor to allow free admission to documenta 15 for another visitor
• Free use of public transport included in the ticket
• A strong focus on material cycles in production and infrastructure (recycling and reuse)
• Installation of a dedicated food market with a sustainable orientation (regional, vegetarian and vegan, reusable tableware) in collaboration with Kassel Marketing
• Separate evaluation / visitor survey on the topic of sustainability

About further measures and projects

Consolidation of the sustainability approaches

Building on the sustainability concept of documenta 15, documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH are currently implementing sustainable development measures and projects in the organization of documenta on a permanent basis:

• Since November 2020 documenta has been a member of the Action Network Sustainability in Culture and Media, which is funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. The aim is to learn from one another and to advance this field as a whole through active exchange on a sustainable future for the cultural sector
• Recording of greenhouse gas emissions in the Museum Fridericianum, documenta Halle and documenta archiv properties as well as in the office space at Untere Karlsstr. 8 with advice from the artist and conservationist Haley Mellin and the financial support of Tiger Foundation in New York. Download the full report for 2022 and 2023 from The Carbon Accounting Company
• Extensive use of the principles of “avoid, relocate, reduce” when realizing exhibitions e.g., by relying on sea freight for transporting artworks
• Further commitment to and expansion of the existing material cycle initiatives that address the distribution and reuse of materials for the organization and production of exhibitions
• Increased use of digitalization to cut down on paper use. The Blauer Engel eco label is standard for all print products
• In April 2023, the documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH set up a works council for the first time to support the legal and social claims of employees relating to the company organization
• The Café at the Fridericianum is organic certified

We see sustainability as an interdisciplinary task, which we are addressing ever more intensively on an ongoing basis. Together, we strive to continually learn and improve in order to drive processes forward and gradually expand and consolidate our measures in this area.

Preamble

documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH (“documenta”) is a non-profit organization funded to an equal extent by the City of Kassel and the State of Hesse. documenta has organized the world’s most important exhibition series of contemporary art of the same name since 1955.

documenta is committed to the humanistic, liberal, and democratic value system embodied in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. At the heart of all documenta activities is the respect and preservation of human dignity as the fundamental basis of civilized life rooted in freedom and self-determination.

documenta acknowledges its obligation and responsibility arising from this to guarantee protection against anti-Semitism, racism, and any other form of group-related misanthropy. documenta guarantees artistic freedom and the free space for the expression of attitudes and opinions in all conceivable languages of forms, which is indispensable for any artistic activity and is characterized by tolerance and an open view of the world.

This Code of Conduct describes the ethical standards that guide all of documenta actions.


Scope of Application

The Code of Conduct applies to the entire documenta organization and all employees assigned to it, regardless of their employment status. The scope of application encompasses all areas of the organization, i.e. both the documenta exhibitions and the permanent facilities.

Within this scope of application, it serves as a guideline for the conduct expected of documenta and supplements the legal framework of the laws applicable to documenta in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Within three months of their election, the respective Artistic Direction of the documenta exhibition shall present their curatorial concept in a public event, provide information on their position on current developments in the field of contemporary art, and explain how they intend to ensure respect for human dignity while safeguarding the constitutionally protected artistic freedom at the exhibition they curate.


Principles of Conduct

In accordance with its own principles, documenta stands for tolerance and respect for human dignity. It actively opposes all forms of anti-Semitism, racism, and any other form of group-related misanthropy. documenta considers the working definition of anti-Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the definition of racism of the UN Convention on Racism to be binding.

documenta gGmbH guarantees the freedom of artistic work and activity within the framework of the laws applicable in Germany. Insofar as documenta judges artistic forms of expression to be in conflict with the principles of conduct manifested in this Code of Conduct, it reserves the right to comment on its resulting stance and, if necessary, also express this through contextualization in the immediate visual context of the exhibited works of art.

In their internal cooperation, documenta employees must treat each other with respect. documenta stands for diversity and actively works against discrimination, sexism, or harassing behavior within its own institution.


Social Responsibility

As the organizer of a contemporary art exhibition with global reach, and in all other tasks it performs, documenta is particularly committed to ensuring social participation while observing the principles of fairness, transparency, and plurality of opinion. It is committed to a culture of discourse and debate in line with these principles. With its exhibitions, events, projects, and publications, it offers spaces for critical discourse on global issues from the present, future, and past in a contemporary art environment. documenta is firmly rooted in an open-minded society and as, an institution, acts in a non-partisan manner within it.


Sustainability

documenta recognizes sustainability as a guiding principle of its actions. In its activities, it pursues the goal of resource-conserving action based on cost-benefit efficiency, keeping all social, ecological, and economic aspects of sustainability in mind at all times. documenta pursues an efficient and mindful approach to the essential foundations of human life at all levels of action and work.


Communication, Mediation and Social Media

With the aim of broad participation and comprehensive involvement of the public in its offerings, documenta is present in social media, especially during the times of the cyclical exhibitions. In this way, documenta promotes dialog with its visitors and makes current information about its offerings available virtually. The comments and views expressed by third parties on social media do not reflect the opinions of documenta itself. documenta expects respectful interaction on the channels it operates within the spirit of the guidelines of this Code of Conduct.


Binding Nature of the Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct contains internal organizational rules of conduct that are directly binding for all persons covered by its scope of application. Violations of these rules will be pursued by documenta using the relevant disciplinary and labor law instruments. In addition, the Code of Conduct also establishes the social responsibility of documenta, which it also pursues as a guideline on how to act in its exchanges and business dealings with third parties.