documenta 15: C&A Façade, Frankfurter Straße / Fünffensterstraße (Underpass), Friedrichsplatz and Hessisches Landesmuseum

In this venues: Taring Padi, Black Quantum Futurism, Richard Bell, Pınar Ögrenci, FAFSWAG

Exhibition title: documenta 15

Curated by: ruangrupa

Venue: documenta 15, C&A Façade, Frankfurter Straße / Fünffensterstraße (Underpass), Friedrichsplatz, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Kassel, Germany

Date: June 18 – September 25, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and ©documenta 15

The C&A clothing store was built in the 1960s on the site where one of Kassel’s most elegant townhouses once stood. In 1770, work began on the Palais Waitz von Eschen, a stately city palace which—like much of the city center—was destroyed on October 22, 1943, in the largest bombing raid on Kassel by Allied forces. A balustrade with fountains was all that survived, where the German Federal Post Office built a large sorting office in 1955, which functioned as a temporary post office during the first documenta. When the C&A store was built, the balustrade and fountains disappeared.

A simple, unornamented facade now blends in with the cityscape—typical of the monotony of West Germany’s rebuilt inner cities after the destruction of World War II. A monument in front of the building recalls the site’s former glory and the reason the square is called Opernplatz (Opera Square): it is dedicated to Louis Spohr (1784–1859), the court’s director of music in the nineteenth century and a composer for the Kassel Opera. Today, people wait in front of it for the tram. Like many German companies, C&A profited under National Socialism from the seizure of Jewish assets and forced labor; the company was also criticized for poor working conditions in its global textile production. Today, it participates in the campaign Aktiv gegen Kinderarbeit (Active against Child Labor) and is said to be the world’s largest buyer of organic cotton.

The Indonesian collective Taring Padi is displaying a large-format painted banner on the C&A façade. Street protests, woodcut workshops, art carnivals, and exhibitions in unexpected places are just some aspects of the collective’s practice.

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From the 1950s, Kassel’s pedestrian zones were banished underground to create more space for cars. The underpass where Fünffensterstraße and Frankfurter Straße merge is a good example of the misguided urban planning of the postwar era. Colorful tiles do nothing to improve the dreariness of the tunnel, which is illuminated at night, but pedestrians are at least offered a safe footpath away from motor traffic.

Black Quantum Futurism, from Philadelphia, USA, is using the pipes of the underpass for a sound installation, and have created a room in which visitors can leave spoken messages.

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Friedrichsplatz is one of Germany’s largest inner-city public squares. Laid out in the eighteenth century and named after Landgrave Friedrich II, it is a place of condensed history, inscribed by the monumental pomp of the Wilhelmine era, the parades of the Nazi era, the destruction of World War II, and the postwar reconstruction. Several documenta artists have left their traces here: Joseph Beuys planted the first oaks of his 7000 Eichen (1982) in front of the Fridericianum; Walter De Maria’s Erdkilometer (1977) sinks deep into the earth; Horst H. Baumann’s laser sculpture Laserscape Kassel (1977) spans the city, from the square to the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe; and Haus-Rucker-Co’s Rahmenbau (1977) forms a window onto the landscape of the Karlsaue.

This year, on Friedrichsplatz, Tent Embassy by artist and activist Richard Bell, which has been traveling the world since 2013, is a note of resistance against colonial power. A digital sign mounted onto the Fridericianum’s façade displays the amount the Australian government owes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, from 1901 to the present.

In addition, the documenta food market has set up its food trucks and cargo bikes here. The gastronomic offer is based on sustainably and organically grown food from the region.

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Más Arte Más Acción (MAMA) brings artists, scientists, activists, and writers together on Colombia’s Pacific coast to dedicate themselves to thinking about climate change and other environmental issues in an interdisciplinary way. Thematizing environmental and socio-political problems, MAMA’s installation in the Greenhouse, the Staatspark Karlsaue management depot, includes a sound collage, tree trunks, and salvaged wood from HessenForst.

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In contrast to the nearby inner city, this historical building, inaugurated in 1913 for Kassel’s millennial jubilee, survived World War II almost undamaged. In the postwar period, the museum housed a famous collection of Flemish and Dutch Old Masters. After extensive renovations, it reopened in 2016 as a museum dedicated to the history of Hesse. The region’s development is richly presented through exhibits on the prehistory and early history of the area, the landgraves, and contemporary culture, among others.

On the first floor, Berlin-based artist Pınar Öğrenci shows a film and an installation of hand-sewn paper tissues produced by women who suffered from the armed conflict around Van, Turkey. The artist, who had to leave her homeland in 2015, deals with conditions of oppression and exclusion in her father’s village of Moks, in Van. In the heraldry room above, the collective FAFSWAG presents installations, screenings, and a digital sculpture. They also invite visitors to participate in a video game dedicated to the queer, non-white body and to the expressive and body-emphasizing dance movements of voguing.

documenta fifteen: Taring Padi, 2022, installation view, C&A Façade, Kassel

documenta fifteen: Black Quantum Futurism, 2022, installation view, Frankfurter Straße / Fünffensterstraße (Underpass), Kassel

documenta fifteen: Richard Bell, Taring Padi, 2022, installation view, Friedrichsplatz, Kassel

documenta fifteen: Pınar Öğrenci, Aşit’/Avalanche / Lawine, 2022, installation view, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Kassel, June 13, 2022, photo: Nicolas Wefers