documenta 14: documenta Halle

Artists: Alexandra Bachzetsis, Miriam Cahn, Cornelius Cardew, Ulises Carrión Jani Christou, André du Colombier, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Christopher D’Arcangelo, Igo Diarra and La Medina, Beau Dick, Aboubakar Fofana, Guillermo Galindo, Apostolos Georgiou, Anna Halprin, Anna and Lawrence Halprin, Sedje Hémon, Lala Rukh, Listening Space Kassel, Alvin Lucier, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Ernest Mancoba, Mattin, Pope.L, Prinz Gholam, El Hadji Sy, Cecilia Vicuña, Annie Vigier & Franck Apertet (les gens d’Uterpan), Stanley Whitney

Exhibition title: documenta 14: Learning from Athens

Artistic Director: Adam Szymczyk

Curated by: Adam Szymczyk, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Pierre Bal-Blanc, Hendrik Folkerts, Candice Hopkins, Hila Peleg, Dieter Roelstraete, Monika Szewczyk

Venue: documenta 14, documenta Halle, Kassel, Germany

Date: June 10 – September 17, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and documenta 14, all photos by Art Viewer

Beyond its obvious postmodern invocations, documenta Halle seems like a body reclining on the slope that brings visitors from Friedrichsplatz to the Orangerie and Karlsaue park—an organism of steel and glass that heats up in summer and remains cold in winter. When it was inaugurated for documenta 9 in 1992, that edition’s director, Jan Hoet, compared the documenta Halle to the Acropolis in order to encourage citizens of Kassel to be proud of this recent addition to the city. Now, twenty-five years later, facing the Parthenon (of books) thanks to Marta Minujín, documenta Halle is a site of scored and libidinal movement.

In the first part of the building, movement is initiated downward with an ensemble of works that deals with the range between score and notation, on the one hand, and the act of performance on the other, with the building’s “cabinets” introducing form and color to the stage. Listening Space Kassel is also present on a mezzanine with a view onto Friedrichsplatz. Its audio archive of the various ongoing sound-based events in Athens are experienced via headphones, extending its public and offering a condensed sonic counterpoint to the visual identity of Kassel. Listening becomes a means to trace the physical space and time of Athens, its architecture, audiences, and performances, from within Germany.

Moving on through the main hall of the documenta Halle offers a concerto that transforms the musical score into utterances of a different kind: unexpected musical instruments, a score that weaves together its own words, and a stage that adjusts the space of the exhibition. At the end of the hall there is a ray of sunlight, its heat sustaining the natural material that may grow there but that cannot take root. Movement ends with a passage that will reset the stage, through the exit that leads to the Karlsaue, completing the nonchalant stretch of the lean architecture itself.

Beau Dick, Twenty-one masks from the series “Undersea Kingdom”, 2016-2017

Alvin Lucier, Sound on Paper, 1985, Sound installation for framed paper, speakers, and oscilator

Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2003-2011, Scotch tape, walls or desktops, duration variable

Apostolos Georgiou, Untitled, 1998, Acrylic on canvas

Pope L., Works from “Skin Set Drawings”, 1997-, Red People Are My Mother When She Sick and Visiting Me in the Hospital, 2010, Mixed media on paper

Lala, Rukh, Posters, Flyers, screenprinting manual, and other materials relating to the Women’s Action Forum, Lahore, 1980s-1990s

Anna Halpin, Score for a Citydance, 1978, Ink and watercolor on paper

Anna Halpin, Documentation of the Automobile Event, 1968, Eight color and black-and-white photographs

Miriam Cahn, Koennteichsein, 2016-2017, various media and materials

Stanley Whitney, Stay Song, 2017, Oil on linen

Prinz Gholam, Speaking of Pictures (Kallimarmaro), 2017, Digital video, color, sound, 37min.

El Hadji Sy, Disso–Concertation, 2016, Installation with paintings and sound

Cecilia Vicuña, Quipu Gut, 2017, Dyed wool

Guillermo Galindo, Fluchtzieleuropahavarie-schallkörper, 2017, Remains of fiberglass and wooden boats, lifebelt and paddle from Lesbos (Greece), goatskin, metal tubes, elastic band, scrap metal, harpsichord strings, piano strings, and metal

Aboubakar Fofana, Fundi (Uprising), 2017, Natural fiber-based textiles, hand sewn and dyed in organic indigo in Bamako and Athens

Aboubakar Fofana, Fundi (Uprising), 2017, Natural fiber-based textiles, hand sewn and dyed in organic indigo in Bamako and Athens: Indigoferra arrecta, Polygonum tinctorium, and Isatis tinctoria

Britta Marakatt-Labba, Historja, 2003-2007, Embrodery, print, appliqué, and wool on linen

Prinz Gholam, My Sweet Country (Olympieion), 2017, Digital video, color, sound, 35min.

Prinz Gholam, My Sweet Country (Olympieion), 2017, Etching (left): Alphonse Lamotte, 1889, Etching (right): Georges Rouault, 1927

Pope L., Works from “Skin Set Drawings”, 1997-

André du Colombier, Untitled, N.D., Reel of Ribbon

André du Colombier, Untitled, N.D., Felt-tip pen on paper

Sedje Hémon, installation with paintings, various works, Oil on canvas

Ernest Mancoba, installation view, various works with different media and materials

Igo Diarra Und La Medina, Installation of objects and archival materials related to Ali Farka Touré and his band and concert by the remaining original members, 2014-2017