- documenta
Nine artistic positions from documenta fifteen have been purchased for the municipal and state art collections in the Neue Galerie and Graphische Sammlung. The city council of Kassel has decided which works of art will be acquired on the recommendation of the acquisition commission. The contract negotiations for the purchase have now been concluded.
The following works of art have been acquired for the municipal and state art collections in the Neue Galerie and Graphische Sammlung:
Amol K Patil Black Masks on Roller Skates
Britto Arts Project Rasad - Food Objects
Marwa Arsanios Who is Afraid of Ideology? Part 4 Reverse Shot (Video)
Sebastián Diaz Morales Smashing Monuments (Video)
Jatiwangi art Factory Perhutana Family Forest Terracotta
Wajukuu Art Project Kahiu kogi gatemaga mwene
Atelier Goldstein room presentation (with 12 works incl. additional works)
Pınar Öğrenci Aşît (Video)
Richard Bell Gallery Hand Outs
The purchase of the first six works was financed from the city budget with around 290,000 euros, while the other three objects were acquired by the Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel (MHK), i.e. the state of Hesse, for around 130,000 euros. The State of Hesse and the City of Kassel have a proven track record of working closely together to purchase documenta artworks for the collections.
The acquisition of the artworks was initially discussed by the Acquisition Commission chaired by Dr. Susanne Völker, Head of Cultural Affairs. The proposals were made by Dr. Dorothee Gerkens, head of the Neue Galerie collection. The commission is made up of the cultural policy representatives of the parliamentary groups as well as the chairmen of the Kunstverein, the Kassel chapter of the Bundesverband Bildender Künstler and the Museumsverein. The Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel and the Fridericianum are also represented.
"The selected works are highly relevant to the art and working methods of documenta fifteen in terms of content and art. In future, they will reflect the concept of the ruangrupa collective in the municipal collection, as well as the diversity of the artistic approaches of d15, which are often oriented towards the common good," emphasized Dr. Susanne Völker, Head of Cultural Affairs.
"The works can be integrated well into the existing collections, correspond with existing works and thus expand the holdings in an enriching way," added Dr. Dorothee Gerkens from the MHK, who curates the municipal art collection there.
Most of the artworks were acquired via the Lumbung Gallery, an association founded specifically for the World Art Show, which has taken over the marketing of the artworks in the form of a cooperative. The aim is to ensure that artists are fairly remunerated and receive 70 percent of the sales price. The remaining 30 percent flows into a "common pot", which is decided on jointly and also enables the financing of the Lumbung Gallery structures.
Background
Amol K Patil "Black Masks on Roller Skates"
A selection of 13 sculptures, 13 paintings and a film by the Indian conceptual and performance artist was acquired. His works were shown in the Hübner area. Amol K Patil deals with the caste system and family ties.
He is critical of the caste system, which is based on oppression and discrimination, and in his works he focuses in particular on making the working class visible. In the installation, for example, he addresses the situation of migrant workers in Mumbai. Their modern housing complexes, the chawls, have been transformed by the migrants into dynamic places of protest, theater and music. In the video, a street cleaner moves through the chawls on roller skates. Listening to the music, he blocks out the outside world, a world that needs him as a cleaner but excludes him as a human being.
Britto Arts Project "Rasad - Food Objects"
The Britto Arts Project was founded in 2002 as a non-profit center for contemporary art in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It acquired 218 individual objects as well as a scaled-down replica of the "market stall" that was exhibited in the documenta Halle.
The commercialization and standardization of food and global market mechanisms are criticized. Some objects contain statements about food policy, which is determined by the agricultural giants from the industrialized nations. Examples include: Fish that turn into guns or a cauliflower that becomes a mushroom cloud.
Marwa Arsanios "Who is Afraid of Ideology? Part4 Reverse Shot"
The artist, filmmaker and researcher Marwa Arsanios lives and works mainly in Beirut, Lebanon. The film deals with the distribution of land rights, in particular the communitization of a private quarry in the mountains of Lebanon with the help of an agricultural cooperative.
Marwa Arsanios also deals with questions of heritage, ownership, property and value. The multi-layered film reflects on the extent to which land as a living object inherently resists ownership and raises post-humanist and ecological-philosophical questions about the intertwining of the geological, historical and legal.
Sebastián Diaz Morales "Smashing Monuments"
The artist and filmmaker Sebastián Diaz Morales, born in Argentina, lives and works in Amsterdam. In his film, 5 curators of ruangrupa (Indra Kusumaaka Ameng, Ade Darmawan, Gesyada Siregar, Farid Rakun & Naga Mirwan Andan) enter into dialog about central lumbung values with monuments in Jakarta.
In particular these are:
- endurance
- friendship
- generosity
- independence and
- not goodbye (no farewell)
The film is artistically independent and also important for the collection as a testimony to central attitudes of documenta fifteen.
Jatiwangi art Factory Perhutana Family Forest Terracotta
Jatiwangi art Factory is a collective from Indonesia founded in 2005. In Jatiwangi, Indonesia, a nature reserve is to be created on eight hectares of forest, for which anyone can purchase a piece of land measuring at least 4 x 4 meters. The aim is to stop the ongoing sale of land - and thus the clearing of ancient forests - to factories owned by companies such as Adidas, Puma and H&M. Instead, a collective natural forest is to be reforested. The Kota Terakota project thus marks a new beginning for Jatiwangi. The town is being redesigned according to the wishes and community agreements of its inhabitants.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the largest brick industry in Southeast Asia was established in Jatiwangi through the extraction of clay. One hundred years later, in 2005, Jatiwangi art Factory - using the same clay - encouraged the citizens of Jatiwangi to build a collective consciousness and identity for their region through art and cultural activities. Those who participate in the land purchase receive a certificate: a fired brick with the inscription "Perhutana Family Forest Certificate". 25 licenses were acquired.
Wajukuu Art Project "Kahiu kogi gatemaga mwene" (2022) by Ngugi Waweru
Wajukuu Art Project is a collective from Kenya. The Wajukuu Art Project was founded in 2004 by a group of artists with the aim of making the slums of Mukuru a place where children can develop through artistic and creative practices. Furthermore, jobs are to be created through the production and sale of works of art.
The Art Project is not only a place for artistic work, it also offers lessons for the children and a vegetable garden. Around 100 children are currently being looked after there. The collective also deals with the wounds of the colonial legacy. They want to use their art to change the view of Africa and bring about a connection to their traditions.
The work "Kahiu kogi gatemaga mwene" ("If a knife is too sharp, it hurts the owner") is an installation made from kitchen knives. "If you keep sharpening them, they stay sharp, but they break quickly," explains the artist Waweru. They are therefore also a symbol for people in a performance and consumer society. Wajukuu Art Project was awarded the Arnold Bode Prize 2022.
Atelier Goldstein room presentation with a total of 12 works
Atelier Goldstein, invited by Project Art Works, represents neurodiverse artists and belongs to Lebenshilfe Frankfurt am Main e. V. The entire room presentation with a total of 12 works by four artists, as it was exhibited in the Hübner-Areal, was acquired.
The artists in detail are
Franz von Saalfeld (born in 1961 in Ingelheim am Rhein, where he lives and works today): 2 watercolors - ink and watercolor on paper: 1988 and 2003
Franz von Saalfeld prefers to paint small-town idylls from the 1950/60s. With watercolors, texts and stage design models, he traces the uncomfortable tranquility of the small town and his own closely interwoven biography.
Hans Jörg Georgi (born in Frankfurt in 1949): 3 airplane models
Hans-Jörg Georgi has been creating airplanes from cardboard scraps for decades. Discovered by Atelier Goldstein, Hans-Jörg Georgi has taken part in numerous international exhibitions with his flying objects in recent years. Some of them can be read as flying cities that ensure the survival of mankind. The artist has made a drawing for each of the three flying objects as a gift.
Julius Bockelt (born 1986 in Frankfurt am Main, lives and works in Frankfurt am Main): several ink drawings
Julius Bockelt has been working in the Goldstein studio since 2004 and pursues a clear artistic concept that focuses on the limits of perception and metaphysical themes. His independent graphic and photographic work is based on visual and auditory phenomena.
Juewen Zhang (born 1995 in Berlin, lives and works in Langen and Frankfurt am Main): Two charcoal drawings
Juewen Zhang is the first student at an art academy in Germany to openly apply with a diagnosis of cognitive impairment. He has been studying fine art at the Offenbach University of Art and Design since 2019. His focus is on meticulously drawn detail shots that take a completely different look at the figure.
Pınar Öğrenci "Aşît"
The artist and filmmaker Pınar Öğrenci, born in Turkey, lives and works in Berlin. The film deals with the traumatic history of Eastern Anatolia and retrospectively addresses the survival strategies of Armenians and Kurds in what is now Eastern Turkey. It is also a reference to Stefan Zweig's "Schachnovelle".
Richard Bell "Gallery Hand Outs"
The artist and Aboriginal activist Richard Bell lives and works in Brisbane, Australia. The painting "Gallery Hand Outs" addresses the complicity of the Western art system and colonial capitalism in the appropriation of art into their systems. Coming from a generation of Aboriginal activists, Richard Bell consistently advocates a policy of self-determination for the Aborigines. Richard Bell was also centrally represented at documenta with the "Aboriginal Embassy" in front of the Fridericianum.
City of Kassel www.kassel.de
Press spokespersons: Victor Deutsch, Simone Scharnke, Michael Schwab, Sascha Stiebing
presse@kassel.de
Telephone 0561 787 1231
City Hall, 34112 Kassel
