No, not; this is not a love song.*
This is a multifaceted complaint/ protest in the name of the daunted, the taunted, the abused, the displaced, the endangered, the forgotten, the ignored, the misunderstood, the damaged, the unjustified, etc.
It is a sample of ideas and narrations of the named alternative view on world, life, and history; and a push to the opposition towards the forefront. The exhibition is an illustration of those ideas and narrations with the use of art, music notation, historical craft, archival pieces, etc; an approach that gives a turn-of-the-century feel to the show. But even that is inversed, as there is no look to the future and no suggestion. The statement of documenta 14 is that protest is a solution in itself.
Where this could be satisfactory for many, the presentation comes out as an ambiguous endeavor; pointing fingers to the proved guilty of history (e.g. nazis and current politicians) yet staying aloof from the bickering of whether there are politics to discuss about, or only budgets and budget-holders.
There is also a constant reference to Greece in a mixture of apologetic and criticizing spirit. For those who have no personal experience of the Greek history and society, it is a riddle with multiple interpretations of which none is correct. There is cruelty in this and harm, I find. The EMST exhibition in the Fridericianum could had better been avoided; though here I am the biased one, suffering from suffocation throughout.
Cruelty and harm come from the seemingly important but unexplained exhibits, like this one, set on a table behind glass in the Neue Galerie: a publication made in 1946 by C.A. Doxiadis and titled The sacrifices of Greece in the Second World War. The open spread shows a graph (right) and explanation (left) in four languages – Greek, French, English, and Russian – of the ‘Rise in mortality during the occupation [by the nazis]’. Only the black part on the graph says Η ΠΕΙΝΑ, meaning ‘the hunger’, while the explanation on the left says in all four languages ‘violent and accidental deaths’. One would expect that this is the point of the exhibit; missed by everyone non Greek speaking.
Right in the next room there is a wall size exhibit called ‘Real Nazis’ (by Piotr Uklanski):
This venue of documenta 14, the Neue Galerie, is full of trauma, guilt, authority, and the positioning of art in this and all what it has to deal with, after all. Yet one must be aware of the faint distinction between what is real and what is fake, or just an assumption. Art is not a documented suggestion nor a proven hypothesis; no matter that words like ‘epistemology’ or ‘typology’ have entered its vocabulary.
In a more empirical set-up and more pleasant to walk about is the KulturBahnhof and its decommissioned tunnel. The works shown have an element of transition, naturally, and a widely meant use of fabric and other tangible mediums. The work ‘Drawing a line through landscape’ by Nikhil Chopra, includes paintings made during a walking travel from Greece to Kassel and a nomad tent with a video.
Rolling down the railroad towards the Neue Neue Galerie we come across a stretched canvas with the word ΧΑΙΡΕΤΕ on it, meaning ‘Hello’ in a somehow formal way. At the background, a low volume rebetika music is playing. The work, titled ‘The Welcoming Gate’ by Zafos Zagoraris, is a highly emotional one. Yet, you still need to read the story.
The Neue Neue Galerie shows newer newer works; it is thus more noisy and flashy than the other venues. The neighborhood is interesting as choice, as usually this is the kind of area to see the art in its making. The disparity between the documenta audience and the junkies-drunkards-homeless plus the local inhabitants could have been thought of as part of the set-up.
Tip: the Turkish restaurant on the same street uphill is all you’ll need after the art visit!
Epilogue
documenta 14, as a show based on history and stories, can provoke many thoughts and produce just as many stories. It can also produce critic; which is a positive thing.
It can also be considered a point 0, as to the fact that it is a show that could have as subtitle ‘In the mind of the curator’. The exhibits have not much meaning in themselves; they serve the ideas of the curator. The exhibits live in a pre-determined context and are selected as a suitable illustration of it. When speaking of democracy and self-determination, the exhibits do not enjoy either. The deriving question is ‘Is a (good) curator good for art?’ The question can be asked also in plural.
It is also a point 0, as to the fact that the evils are exposed and the unsaid is said as greatly or as clumsily as it was possible. Statement clear; time for action and change.
As for the working-title ‘Learning from Greece’: How about inert colonialist tendencies? After all, Greece and the Greeks allow themselves to be prey to the ΞΕΝΟΙ (foreigners/strangers/visitors), offering them the illusion of being superior. However, touching raw history is even in this set-up a no-go.
*Yes, from the song ‘This is not a love song’ by Public Image Ltd, 1983.
P.S. 1 A last article about documenta 14 may appear on this blog about the Public Programs, an experiment directed by Paul B. Preciado.
P.S. 2 There are two previous articles on this blog about documenta 14; short ones: ‘Textiles in documenta 14’ and ‘documenta 14 -Kassel: in a Yes and a No’.
Photos below: In documenta Halle, Posters of performances of Iannis Xenakis in Athens in 1980’s (top), and a music score by Jani Christou (down).
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