My big fat Greek Documenta

The contemporary art exhibition held in Kassel every five years expands to Athens in 2017

By Julia Michalska. Web only

Published online: 07 October 2014

The artistic team of Documenta 14: (bottom row) Pierre Bal-Blanc, artistic director Adam Szymczyk, Quinn Latimer, Henriette Gallus; (second row) Hila Peleg, Dieter Roelstraete, Monika Szewcyzk, managing director Annette Kulenkampff; (third row) Andrea Linnenkohl, Katerina Tselou, Marina Fokidis, Hendrik Folkerts; (top row) Annie-Claire Geisinger, Katrin Sauerländer, Christoph Platz and Fivos Sakalis

Documenta, the prestigious contemporary art exhibition held in Kassel, Germany, every five years, is taking a dip into the Mediterranean for its 14th edition. A significant portion of the 2017 show will take place in Athens, said Adam Szymczyk, its artistic director, at a press briefing yesterday, putting the Greek capital and the German town on an “equal footing” as locations for the exhibition.

The move is motivated by “the current social and political situation in Europe and globally, which motivates artistic action,” said Szymczyk, but also addresses the “tension between the North and the South” in contemporary cultural production.

It will not be the first time that Documenta looks beyond its German home. The 11th edition of the show, organised by Okwui Enwezor in 2002, featured “discussion platforms” in Laos, Berlin, New Delhi, Vienna and Saint Lucia, while Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev unveiled works in Alexandria, Banff and Kabul in 2012. But Szymczyk’s geographic displacement of the show promises to be the most profound. Visitors who are unable to travel to both sites will experience “a feeling of loss and longing”, he said.

Szymczyk also introduced the first members of his team yesterday. They include the curator Pierre Bal-Blanc, the Basel-based poet Quinn Latimer, and the curator Marina Fokidis, who will head the artistic office in Athens. Documenta 14 will open in Athens in April 2017 and then in Kassel on 10 June.