Program

Founded by Arnold Bode, the documenta opened in Kassel for the first time on July 15, 1955,

and thirteen editions of the documenta have been presented since then. Preparations for

the documenta 14 are currently in progress, and the exhibition is scheduled to open in Kassel

and Athens in 2017. The 60th anniversary of the documenta, which is now regarded as the

most important exhibition of contemporary art in the world, will be celebrated with an

impressive program of accompanying events:

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Official transfer of the documenta Archive

The anniversary celebration begins with a symbolic act honoring the official transfer of the

documenta Archive currently managed by the City of Kassel to the documenta und Museum

Fridericianum Veranstaltungs-GmbH. The archive was established by the City of Kassel on

the initiative of Arnold Bode in 1961. Today, it comprises one of the worlds most important

special libraries devoted to the art of the 20th and 21st centuries as well as an extensive

collection of valuable materials, photographs, and correspondence from all thirteen previ-

ous documenta exhibitions. Beginning in 2016, the work of the archive will continue under

the supervision of the documenta und Museum Fridericianum Veranstaltungs-GmbH, which

is owned by the City of Kassel and the State of Hesse. The resulting increase in financial

support to be provided for the archive in the future will serve to enhance and underscore the

international significance of this unique scholarly institution.

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Thursday, July 16, 2015

Marcel Broodthaers

Fridericianum

The Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers (19241976) is one of the most significant repre-

sentatives of the art of the 20th and 21st centuries, as evidenced not least of all by the

presentation of his art at four documenta exhibitions (documenta 5, 6, 7 and documenta X).

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the documenta, the Fridericianum is pleased to

present an extensive survey exhibition of Broodthaerss works from all of his creative

periods. The exhibition features his first piece, Pense-Bte (1964), numerous sculptural works,

five sections of his Muse dArt Moderne, Dpartement des Aigles (19681972), and the

rooms entitled Un Jardin dHiver II (1974), Salle Blanche (1975), and Dcor, A Conquest

(1975).

Having begun as a writer, Marcel Broodthaers decided to become a visual artist in 1964.

From the outset, he posed fundamental questions about visual art and forms of

demonstration, presentation, and representation. In the process he questioned the

fundamentalmechanisms involved in the social production of meaning and departed from the

supposedly universal validity of existing orders of knowledge. In an age characterized by our

faith in the capacity of visual images to explain scientific and political phenomena, the oeuvre

of Marcel Broodthaers, in which the unspoken dissonance of images, words, and meanings

becomes clearly visible, assumes striking explosive power and relevance.

Curated by Susanne Pfeffer

Fridericianum, Friedrichsplatz 18, 34117 Kassel

Exhibition opening: July 16, 2015

Duration of the exhibition: July 17 to October 11, 2015

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Friday, July 17, 2015 and Saturday, July 18, 2015

Symposium

documenta 19972017: erweiterte Denkkollektive / expanding thought-collectives

Contributors include:

Catherine David (documenta X, 1997)

Okwui Enwezor (Documenta11, 2002)

Roger M. Buergel and Ruth Noack (documenta 12, 2007)

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (dOCUMENTA (13), 2012)

Adam Szymczyk (documenta 14, 2017)

The notion of what a documenta exhibition can be and what it should accomplish has

changed considerably over the past twenty years. Art exhibitions have evolved into a global

format that aims not only to present art, but also to communicate the most recent theories

and conceptual models to an increasingly international public. This development and the

questions and issues it raises will be the focus of attention during the two-day symposium.

They will be discussed by the artistic directors of the past four documenta exhibitions and

the artistic director of the upcoming documenta 14 in dialogue with international guests from

the fields of art, science and theory. What were the underlying theoretical concepts for the

last four documenta exhibitions, and how are they assessed today? How do these exhibi-

tions realize their global orientation? What new ideas about the world do they convey?

Subsequent to the public symposium a workshop for students at German universities will be

held at the School of Art and Design Kassel.

Conceived by Dorothea von Hantelmann, documenta visiting professor at the School of Art

and Design Kassel

An event by the German Federal Cultural Foundation in cooperation with the School of Art

and Design Kassel

documenta Halle, Du-Ry-Str. 1/am Friedrichsplatz, 34117 Kassel

csoliozRectangle

Friday, July 17, 2015 Thursday, July 23, 2015

Ongoing Action

Alexandra Pirici and Manuel Pelmu: Public Collection of Modern Art

The recent work by Alexandra Pirici and Manuel Pelmu Public Collection of Modern Art

(2014) proposes a subjective, non-exhaustive overview of Modern Art through the use

of enactment. It is an attempt to claim history, to de-scale, de-monumentalize but also actu-

alize and re-contextualize significant artworks and events from the history of modernity

using only a few human bodies. Initially commissioned by the Van Abbemuseum for the

Confessions of the Imperfect, 1848 1989 Today exhibition, the works presentation

in this context attempts a dialogue between the history of discourses and important mo-

ments of modernity and the history of the documenta exhibitions and their initial histori-

cal intention.

The format of the work, even though immaterial, is that of an ongoing action-exhibition

and relies on the same convention as any display of material objects. It thus reflects on

questions of immaterial production and its economy in museum and gallery space as

well as on the very notion of a permanent material collection that is traditionally seen

as the corner-stone of the museum as an institution.

An event by the documenta Archive of the City of Kassel

Fridericianum, Friedrichsplatz 18, 34117 Kassel

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Friday, July 17, 2015

Concert

M.A. Numminen and defunensemble: Verliebte Philosophen

In conjunction with the documenta anniversary celebration, the cantata entitled Verliebte

Philosophen by the Finnish artist, composer, and singer M.A. Numminen will be presented

for the first time in Germany in a new, augmented arrangement. Numminen, well-known

since the 1960s for his eclectic interests in such fields as philosophy, sociology, and

linguistics as well as various musical styles, including jazz, classical and electronic music,

tango, and new music, participated in dOCUMENTA (13). He previously presented a phil-

osophically inspired music program under the title Wittgenstein Compositions in

collaboration with defunensemble in Kassel in 2012.

Composed in 2010, his Verliebte Philosophen forges yet another link between music

and philosophy. The work deals with the complicated relationship between Hannah

Arendt and Martin Heidegger. Major passages in the libretto were compiled from corre-

spondence between Arendt (Ida Walln, soprano) and Heidegger (Herman Walln, baritone).

M.A. Numminen serves as the narrator who embeds excerpts from letters relating to the

couples first meeting in Marburg in 1925, Hannah Arendts emigration from Germany,

Martin Heideggers admission to membership in the NSDAP in 1933, and their reunion

after the war in a temporal framework. The music itself tracks the ups and downs of their

stormy relationship.

An event by the German Federal Cultural Foundation in cooperation with the documenta Archive,

with the kind support of the Kulturhaus Dock 4 under the auspices of the City of Kassel

Kulturhaus Dock 4, Untere Karlsstrae 4, 34117 Kassel

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Sunday, July 19, 2015

documenta Festival

Kassel has planned a grand festival for all visitors to the documenta city under the patron-

age of Lord Mayor Bertram Hilgen. Numerous art and cultural institutions, individual

performers, and international guests are putting together a program devoted to recounting

and celebrating the 60-year history of the documenta in exhibitions, films, performances,

discussions, readings, and tours conceived specifically for the festival. The festival will open

at the Unterer Friedrichsplatz, and tours will embark from there to the various event sites in

the city throughout the day. An open-air concert at the Friedrichsplatz in the evening of July

19, 2015 will bring the festival and the week of events in honor of the 60th anniversary of

the documenta to a close.

An event by the documenta und Museum Fridericianum Veranstaltungs-GmbH in cooperation

with the City of Kassel

Unterer Friedrichsplatz and numerous other locations in the city

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October 30, 2015 to February 14, 2016

Exhibition: UTOPIEdocumenta Unrealized Projects from the History of the World

Art Exhibition

Focusing on a previously unexplored dimension of documenta history, the UTOPIEdocumenta

exhibition takes a serious look at the unfinished as a genre of art in its own right. The

documenta has gained international acclaim not only for the works acquired on loan from

all over the world, but most notably for art projects developed exclusively for each

documenta exhibition. Some of these projects were never or only partially realized due

to technical or organizational constraints. The exhibition presents the wide range of media

in which plans for these projects materialized. Conceptual drafts, sketches, models, and

plans by such artists as Wolf Vostell (documenta 6) or George Trakas (documenta 8), by

artists groups, including Archigram (documenta 5), Coop Himmelb(l)au (documenta 5),

and Haus-Rucker-Co (documenta 6), and by documenta founder Arnold Bode document

the utopian potential of the world art exhibition in Kassel.

Curated by Harald Kimpel

An event by the Culture Office of the City of Kassel

Stadtmuseum Kassel, Stndeplatz 16, 34117 Kassel

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Press contacts:

For questions regarding the Fridericianum and 60 Years of documenta

Carolin Wrthner

Presse und Kommunikation

Press and Communication

Fridericianum/60 Years of documenta

Fridericianum

Friedrichsplatz 18

34117 Kassel

+49 561 70727-89

press@fridericianum.org

For questions regarding documenta 14

Henriette Gallus

Leiterin der Abteilung Kommunikation

Head of Communications documenta 14

Friedrichsplatz 18

34117 Kassel

+49 561 70727-6108

gallus@documenta.de

For questions regarding the documenta Archive and the City of Kassel

Petra Bohnenkamp

City of Kassel

Press and Communication

34112 Kassel

+49 561 787-1233

petra.bohnenkamp@kassel.de