L.A. Louver Managing Director Lisa Jann and Chief Preparator Chris Pate recently traveled to Kassel, Germany before making their way to Basel, Switzerland for Art 43 Basel. Their mission was to attend dOCUMENTA 13 and relay their findings to the L.A. Louver team.
Lisa reports…
Overall, Documenta 13 is extremely self-conscious in its presentation of artists and projects that challenge current economic systems and their failures; turns a spotlight on the world’s relationship with Afghanistan and the Middle East (with a major representation of Afghan, Pakistani, Iranian and Palestinian artists in particular); and raises questions related to the environment, and governmental collusion against culture and/or ecology.
A few notes from their journey:
We first ventured out through Karlslaue Park, where there were scores of large-scale, installation-oriented works, which also included numerous pavilions dedicated to video. We covered much ground on our hike to view projects such as…
“Self Portrait as Shack,” by Shinro Ohtake (b. 1977, Japan) – “a smoke-puffing and sound-blasting standalone shed, filled with a giant collage folio, bike wheels, and a guitar-oriented noise-making machine….
Installed in the Documenta Halle, Yan Lei (b. 1965, China) chose 360 images from the internet (political figures, details from art historical works, Chinese actresses, Shanghai-era advertising images, personal snapshots, etc.) and had them fabricated into paintings. Over the course of dOCUMENTA (13), one painting will be sent to an automobile factory every day, to be covered in monochrome paint and rehung, such that these images that have appealed to his consciousness, will disappear over time…
At the Neue Galerie, we viewed a group show which included "Leaves of Grass” by Geoffrey Farmer (b. 1967, Canada), a 100+ foot long three-dimensional collage of images from Life Magazine, 1935-1985. An amazing, overwhelming narrative of culture and history…
In the Fredericianum, a beautiful room with paintings by Aboriginal artists Doreen Reid Nakamarra and Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri…
We also had the opportunity to visit several site-specific projects including a work by Allora (b. 1974, USA) and Calzadilla (b. 1971, Cuba) in the Bunker im Weinburg. The work presented a video in which a flautist attempts to play a flute that is the oldest known instrument made by man (35,000 years old), presented in the Kassel bunker that housed ice and beer, and later served as the air raid shelters in WWII. Hard hats were issued, evidence of our intrepidness.
On the Weinberg Terraces, Adrian Villar Rojas (b. 1980, Argentina) presented an astonishing installation of sculpture…
We also made a special trip to the Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel (MHK), where Per Kirkeby has a beautiful show of etchings from 1960s - 2000s, along with a few strong paintings.
Impossible to see everything, but we did our best to cover as much ground as we could before hopping on the train to Basel!
Click HERE to read more about the history of dOCUMENTA.