- documenta
The documenta marked its 60th birthday in Kassel with a festive celebration in Kassel in honor of the milestone occasion under the patronage of Mayor Bertram Hilgen. Twenty-nine art and cultural institutions in Kassel joined for the first time in organizing a program devoted to recalling aspects of the multifaceted history of the documenta since 1955 and enabling visitors to experience them once again. The more than fifty events on the program included numerous exhibitions, film presentations, performances, panel discussions, readings, and guided tours.
The documenta has left an indelible imprint on the city of Kassel during the past sixty years. Guided tours to the works of outdoor art remaining in Kassel from past exhibitions enable visitors to experience the complex historical significance of these works while offering both contexts and insights. Contemporary witnesses shared their recollections of past documenta exhibitions with visitors at many different locations.
The documenta Forum invited E.R. Nele, the daughter of documenta founder Arnold Bode, art historian Prof. Adrian von Buttlar, and Pitt Moog, a former master student of Bode’s, to a panel discussion on the first documenta of 1955. While works from past documenta exhibitions purchased by the city of Kassel were the focus of attention at the Neue Galerie, the Naturkundemuseum and the Kulturbahnhof, the documenta Archive presented its “My documenta” project devoted to the recollections of contemporary witnesses and offered guided tours. Artists featured in past documenta exhibitions took part in the program in a number of project spaces in Kassel, among them Ugo Dossi, Horst Hoheisel, Jürgen Klauke, and Timm Ulrichs. The festivities continued into the evening with a grand open-air swing concert by the Orchestra of the Staatstheater Kassel featuring pieces from the founding years of the documenta in the 1950s and 1960s. The performance at Friedrichsplatz drew 12,000 visitors. After the concert, the Open-Air-Kino showed Let’s Get Lost, one of the favorite films of Adam Szymczyk, Artistic Director of documenta 14. The film by Bruce Weber produced in 1988 is about transience and remembrance – and was “an invitation to get lost together, alone” (Adam Szymczyk).
With generous support provided by: Boxan, the Hessian Ministry of Art and Science, the HNA, the Kasseler Sparkasse, Kassel Marketing GmbH, the Staatstheater Kassel, the City of Kassel, Städtische Werke AG; media partner: HNA
