documenta 14: Fridericianum

Artists: Andreas Angelidakis, Banu Cennetoğlu, Hans Haacke, Pope.L, Ben Russell, ANTIDORON: Works from the EMST Collection at documenta 14, Alexis Akrithakis, Nikos Alexiou, Dimitris Alithinos, Andreas Angelidakis, Stephen Antonakos, Janine Antoni, Eugenia Apostolou, Athanasios Argianas, Manolis Baboussis, Bertille Bak, Lynda Benglis, Chronis Botsoglou, Yiannis Bouteas, Andrea Bowers, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Constantin Byzantios, Pedro Cabrita Reis Vlassis Caniaris, Pantelis Chandris, Chryssa, Bia Davou, Pavlos (Dionysopoulos), George Drivas, Eirene Efstathiou, Haris Epaminonda, Köken Ergun, Jan Fabre, Stelios Faitakis, Carlos Garaicoa, Kendell Geers, George Hadjimichalis, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Mona Hatoum, Gary Hill, Emily Jacir, Gülsün Karamustafa, Nikos Kessanlis, Kimsooja, Panos Kokkinias, Joseph Kosuth, Dimosthenis Kokkinidis, Jannis Kounellis, Piotr Kowalski, George Lappas, Yorgos Lazongas, Ange Leccia, Stathis Logothetis, Maria Loizidou, Andreas Lolis, Danny Matthys, Yiannis Michas, Nikos Navridis, Danil (Panagopoulos), Nina Papaconstantinou, Maria Papadimitriou, Aemilia Papaphilippou, Ilias Papailiakis, Rena Papaspyrou, Nausika Pastra, Jannis Psychopedis, Alexandros Psychoulis, Walid Raad, Oliver Ressler, Lucas Samaras, Yorgos Sapountzis, Allan Sekula, Vassilis Skylakos, Christiana Soulou, Aspa Stasinopoulou, Takis, Theodoros, sculptor, Thanassis Totsikas, Nikos Tranos, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Costas Tsoclis, Dimitris Tzamouranis, Costas Varotsos, Kostis Velonis, Bill Viola, Vangelis Vlahos, Pantelis Xagoraris, Georgios Xenos

Exhibition title: documenta 14: Learning from Athens (ANTIDORON. The EMST Collection)

Artistic Director: Adam Szymczyk

Curated by: Katerina Koskina

Assistant Curators: Tina Pandi, Stamatis Schizakis

Venue: documenta 14, Fridericianum, 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

Note: Press release can be found here

The exhibition at the Fridericianum marks the first time the collection of Greece’s National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) is presented in Germany, through a double displacement that renders EMST’s home, the renovated building of the former Fix brewery in Athens, one of the main venues of documenta 14, and the Fridericianum, traditionally the centerpiece of a documenta exhibition, the temporary home of EMST’s collection. With this collaboration, documenta 14 and EMST strengthen each other’s public engagement, captured in documenta 14’s working title Learning from Athens as well as in the museum’s new annual exhibition series, entitled “EMST in the World.”

EMST began creating its collection in 2000. Its holdings now include more than 1,100 works by Greek and international artists from the 1960s onward. The exhibition at the Fridericianum is an adapted version of the museological study of the EMST collection by the director Katerina Koskina to be inaugurated in Athens in 2017, with the curatorial assistance of Tina Pandi and Stamatis Schizakis, the architectural design of Iro Nikolakea, and the support of all the EMST staff. The artworks that travel to Kassel comment on the complex reality in Greece today and highlight the parallel and international journeys of pioneering Greek artists.

In their transcultural decussation, documenta 14 and EMST engage border crossings, diasporas, and personal and collective memories—including issues of repatriation, or αντιδάνεια (the return of loans)—in a manifestation of the two institutions’ joint commitment to preserving and reinterpreting cultural icons and important artworks. The presentation considers the EMST collection vis-à-vis the history of the Fridericianum, the birthplace of documenta and the first public museum on mainland Europe, offering new histories while challenging prevalent ones. The Fridericianum’s brief tenure as a house of parliament serves as an important connection to the ways some artists represented in the EMST collection have dealt with the difficulty of sustaining democracy during the postwar transformation of Greek and European society, including the years of military dictatorship.

During documenta 14, the Fridericianum’s rotunda hosts the Parliament of Bodies, the exhibition’s Public Programs, ramifying the site’s short term as a house of parliament in the early nineteenth century as it operates as a critical device, queering the ruins of democratic institutions as well as the traditional forms of educational and public programming.

In addition, in the basement of the Fridericianum (via an entrance on Friedrichsplatz), Ben Russell’s sound piece announces shift times for the mineworkers in Suriname and Serbia portrayed in his video installation—thus marking additional temporal and spatial displacements.

Nikos Alexiou, The End, 2007, Digital animation, color, silent (loop)

Chryssa, Chicago Chinatown, 1990, Metal and neon

Chryssa, Cycladic Books, 1957, Plaster, Twenty works

Takis, Gong, 1978, Metal and electromagnet

Joseph Kosuth, Cathexis #39, 1981, Black-and-white photograph with offset print

Kimsooja, Bottari, 2005, Traditional Korean bed cover and used clothes

Lynda Benglis, Knossos, 1978, Painted plaster with wire support

Lucas Samaras, Hebraic Embrace, 1991-2015, Wood, mirror and iron

Lucas Samaras, XYZ 1550–Placebo 97, 2015, 192 inkjet pigment prints

Nausika Pastra, Synectron–Square–Circle, 1968-1976, Aluminum

Takis, Telelumiere colonne, 1966, Mercury-vapor lights, light bulbs, electromagnets, and nylon filament

Chryssa, Newspaper Book, ca. 1962, Metal structure with five double-sided paintings

Pedro Cabrita Reis, The Black Monochrome, 2003, Acrylic on glass in aluminum frame

Vlassis Caniaris, Hopscotch, 1974, Installation including six human figures (chicken wire over wooden frame, paper and plastic filling, and used clothes), nine suitcases, metal bird cage, and chalk on tarpaper

Alexis Akrithakis, Eight Suitcases with Rubbish from a Beach, 1972, Mixed media

Alexis Akrithakis, Suitcases with Beer Cans, 1972, Mixed media

Vlassis Caniaris, Space within Space, 1960, Plaster on paper, metal net, metal frame, metal rods, and cloth

Vlassis Caniaris, Homeage to the Walls of Athens 1941-19…, 1959, Mixed media on canvas

Costas Tsoclis, Scarecrow, 1960, Cement, soal, and acrylic on burlap

Stathis Logothetis, E130, 1971, Mixed media

Stathis Logothetis, E273, 1980, Mixed media

Stathis Logothetis, E56A, 1966

Stathis Logothetis, E113, 1970, Oil on canvas

Kendell Geers, Acropolis Redux (The Director’s Cut), 2004, Situation, Fencing and steel shelves

Dimosthenis Kokkinidis, “And Regarding the Remember if Evils…” series, 1967-1997, Acrylic on cardboard mounted on plywood

Oliver Ressler, Rethinking representation, 2009, Video, 16min.

Chronis Botsoglou, Frieze, 1972, Tempera and acrylic on wood, eighteen panels

Jannis Psychopedis, Seminar, 1980, Mixed media on paper

Theodoros, Sculptor, Manipulations–Antispectacular, 1974, Sculpural installation in five parts including tulle, wood, charcoal, color and mirror

Andreas Angelidakis, Polemos, 2017, Foam and vinyl seating modules, 136 blocks or various dimensions

Rena Papaspyrou, Geography–Images in Matter, 1981, Graphite on cement and metal

Eugenia Apostolou, Silent Journey, 1995, Oil on canvas

Eugenia Apostolou, Disembodiment, 2012, Oil on canvas

Janine Antoni, Slumber, 1994, Maple loom, wool yarn, bed, EEG machine, artist’s REM reading on computer paper, seven nightgowns woven into a 126-feet blanket

Yorgos Lazongas, Blind Painting–Alekton (What is not spoken), 1988, Spray paint on bedsheet

Bia Davou, Sails, 1981-1982, Fabric

Maria Loizidou, Collective Autobiography, 2013, Cypress wood and mixed media

Danil (Panagopoulos), I/, 1977, Acrylic on burlap

Costas Tsoclis, Portraits, 1986, Five videos, color, silent, projected on five paintings on cloth and metal

Costas Tsoclis, Harpooned Fish, 1986-2000, Video, color, silent, projected on five paintings on cloth and metal

Stelios Faitakis, Fortunately absurdity is lost (but they have hoped for much more), 2014, Acrylic on MDF

Emily Jacir, Memorial to 418 Palestinian Villages Which Were Destroyed, Depopulated, and Occupied by Israel in 1948, 2001, Embroidered tent, thread, and mixed media

Andrea Bowers, No Olvidado (Not Forgotten), 2010, Graphite on paper

Stephen Antonakos, Remembrance, 1987-1989

Vassilis Skylakos, Large Sculpture, 1991, Wood and mixed media

Nikos Kessanlis, White Gesture, 1964, Cloth

Nikos Kessanlis, Gesture, 1965, Plaster on wood

Bertille Bak, Rayonnage, 2009-2014, Six banners, wool on canvas

Yorgos Sapountzis, Athen – Die Landschaften Griechenlands (Athens – The Landspaces of Greece), 2014, Fabric, newspaper, ink, pins, and coins

Ilias Papailiakis, The Potrait of P.P. Pasolini, 2015, Oil on canvas

Ilias Papailiakis, Untitled, 2016, Oil on canvas

Haris Epaminonda, Untitled #09p/g, 2012, Old Dogon bronze figure, metal, and wooden plinth

Georgios Xenos, Untitled, 1978, Charcoal on paper

Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Precarious Archive, 2015, Archival photographs, digital slide projections, architectural construction, and performance

Nikos Navridis, Looking for a Place, 1999, Four-channel video projection, color, sound, 17:24min.

Mona Hatoum, Fix it, 2004, Factory fixtures and furnishings, light bulbs, lighting equipment, electric cable, and sound

Gülsün Karamustafa, The Apartment Building, 2012, Installation including thirteen color photographs on aluminum, foam board, wood, MDF, and acrylic sheet