documenta committees decide documenta fifteen takes place as planned in 2022

At today’s meetings, the Supervisory Board and shareholders of documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH decided that documenta fifteen can take place in Kassel as planned from June 18 to September 25, 2022. The committees reported comprehensively on the feasibility of the exhibition in light of developments regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the infrastructural challenges and variables influencing the realization of the curatorial concept.

Since spring 2020, the planning of documenta fifteen has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and has already required numerous adaptations. For example, the worldwide studio visits and working meetings with the Artistic Direction and international artists and groups took place exclusively in the digital space for almost a year and a half. The mutual exchange and site-specific development of projects, which are important to the concept of ruangrupa, were thus rendered more difficult. Nevertheless, planning is progressing, both in terms of the selection of individual exhibition venues and the preparations of artistic positions. Safety and hygiene are a constant consideration—from the choice of sufficiently large indoor and outdoor locations to digital solutions for guiding visitors and supporting the visitor experience. ruangrupa’s curatorial concept, which is based on a comprehensive approach to sustainability, accommodates these developments so that in many respects new things can emerge from the crisis.

The Supervisory Board’s recommendation that the fifteenth edition of documenta takes place as scheduled in 2022 is also supported by the documenta fifteen Finding Committee (documenta Committee), which met in advance of today’s meeting. The Finding Committee emphasizes that the curatorial practice of ruangrupa represents an apt response to the urgencies of our time; it is rooted in life and process-oriented, and therefore has the power to take on moments of uncertainty.
The resolution of the shareholders’ meeting is still to be confirmed by a resolution of the municipal council of the City of Kassel.

Artistic Team members at ruruHaus, Kassel, 2021, photo: Nicolas Wefers