documenta X - Retrospective - documenta

http://www.documenta.de/en/retrospective/documenta_x#

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documenta X
21 June 28 September 1997

Artistic Director
Catherine David

Artists
138

Venues
Parcours: Kulturbahnhof / Balikino,
Unterfhrung Kulturbahnhof, Unterfhrung
Treppenstrae, Treppenstrae,
Friedrichsplatz, Museum Fridericianum,
Ottoneum, documenta-Halle, Orangerie,
Karlsaue

Visitors
628.776
Budget
21.732.293 DM
Website
documenta10.de

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Catherine David (1997)

Photo: Gitty Darugar

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The last documenta of the twentieth century was the first directed by a
woman, the French curator Catherine David. As might have been expected,
she was awaited in Kassel with skepticism. Catherine Davids intellectual
approach to this major exhibitionwhose meaning and purpose she
examined in the catalogueand the critical assessment of the political,
social, economic, and cultural issues of the contemporary globalized world
for which she appealed, prompted fears for the autonomy of art in advance
of the exhibition. The poster, on which the small d is crossed out by a large
Roman numeral X, triggered outrageas it was seen by many as an attempt
to question the very institution of documenta. In retrospect, one is
astonished to realize how little the critical reception of documenta 10
conveys a sense of the exhibition as a manifestation culturelle.

Lois Weinberger, Das ber die Planzen/ist eins mit Ihnen (1990-97)
Photo: Bernhard Rffert

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Instead of a genuine attempt to come to grips with the different challenges

and discourses to which the exhibition sought to respondfrom the debate
on postcolonialism (with such works as Lothar Baumgartens Vakuum series
[197880], or the documenta documents) to the various models of urbanism
(Aldo van Eyck, Archigram, Archizoom Associati, Rem Koolhaas) to the
meaning of the visual image in the media society (as exemplified by Marcel
Broodthaerss Sction Publicit, Muse dArt Moderne, Dpartement des
Ailes [1968]) to contemporary network art (Heath Bunting, Joachim Blank /
Karl Heinz Jeron)and her curatorial accomplishments, art critics
repeatedly cited what they regarded as an excess of theory,
intellectualism, and an alleged absence of sensuousness. The latter
charge may well have been directed toward Kassel itself, however. Indeed,
David presented the city of Kasselonce the most automobile-friendly and
thus most modern city in Germanyas a modern ruin in her documenta

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walking course. Entirely fitting were the flourishing weedsneophytes from

southern and southeastern Europethat Lois Weinberger planted as a
metaphor for migration processes along the disused tracks at Kassels main
railway station, which was relegated to the status of a regional station and
converted to commercial and cultural use as a culture station after the
Kassel-Wilhelmshhe Intercity Railway Station was built. The walking course
extended from there through underpasses and along Treppenstrae down to
the Fridericianum, past documenta Halle and the Orangerie to the Fulda
River. The local blend of different social, economic, environmental,
aesthetic, and cultural systems was open to investigation along this axis.
The works of art installed there were not conceived as event-oriented
urban furnishings but were intended instead to intervene subtly into
public space with specific questions. Jeff Walls Milk (1984)a light box
showing the photograph of a man sitting in front of a brick wall on the side
of the street holding a paper bag from which a fountain of milk sprayed
forth, a banal scene at first glance that turned surreal on closer
examinationwas installed in an underground pedestrian underpass.
Christine Hill set up her Volksboutique (Peoples Boutique, 1996) in another
underpass, while Suzanne Lafonts poster displayed near the railway station
laconically traced the migration routes between the major cities of
southeastern and central Europe. The course ended near the Fulda with the
Metro-Net Skulptur: Transportabler U-Bahn Eingang (Metro-Net Sculpture:
Portable Subway Entrance, 1997) by Martin Kippenberger, who had died
shortly before the exhibition opened. The entrance to mobility suggested in
the title was merely mock-up, howevera symbol of dysfunctional urban
networks. Located near the Orangerie not far from there was perhaps the
most popular work of art presented at documenta 10: Carsten Hller and
Rosemarie Trockels Ein Haus fr Schweine und Menschen (A House for
Pigs and People, 1997). The supposedly idyllic, interspecies setting
combined subtly disturbing evolutionary theory with the gruesome reality of
profit-oriented mass animal husbandry.

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Carsten Hller and Rosemarie Trockel, Ein Haus fr Schweine und Menschen (1997)
Photo: Bernhard Rffert documenta Archiv

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In an effort to fix the position of the documenta at the end of the century,
David also conceived a number of retrospectives that shed light on
significant tendencies of the past postwar period in the sense of a postarchaic, post-traditional, and post-national" memory and striving for
identification (Marcel Broodthaers, Aldo van Eyck, yvind Fahlstrm,
Richard Hamilton, Gordon Matta-Clark, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and
Gerhard Richter, represented by Atlas [196296]), on the one hand, and
sought to expose the omissions of Western art historiography (with Hlio

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Oiticica and Lygia Clark as representatives of Brazilian modernism, for

example). With these retrospectives, documenta 10 took up the thread of
the founding principle of the documenta once again.

Jeff Wall, Milk (1984, exhibition copy

1997)
Photo: Ryszard Kasiewicz

Franz West, Dokustuhl (1997); Heimo

Zobernig, Untitled ( Display fr 100
Tage - 100 Gste) (1997) Heimo
Zobernig/VG Bild- Kunst
Photo: Christofer Jgerfeld

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Michelangelo Pistoletto, Oggetti in

meno (1965-66), Mappamondo
(1966-68)
Photo: Ryszard Kasiewicz

Jodi (Joan Heemskerk, Dirk

Paesmans ), jodi.org (1994-97)
Photo: Werner Maschmann
documenta Archiv

Gerhard Richter, Atlas (1992-96)

Photo: Ryszard Kasiewicz

Peter Kogler, documenta 10 (1997)

Foto: Werner Maschmann
documenta Archiv

Aside from the film program and the publication of the documenta
documents, one of the most important features of the manifestation
culturelle was the series entitled 100 Days 100 Guests, to which David
invited guests from all regions of the globalized world to talk with her on
various matters every evening starting at seven oclock. The discussions
were held in documenta Halle, which had been built in 1992 as a
multifunctional venue and recently furnished with chairs by Franz West. The
series began with Edward Said and proceeded with Rem Koolhaas (on The
New Urbanism), Okwui Enwezor (who would succeed her as artistic
director, on Biennials), Matthew Ngui, Suely Rolnik, and others to Wole
Soyinka (Art and the Ethnocentric View). In an ironic allusion to the
lettering on the neighboring Staatstheater, Peter Friedl affixed the word
KINO (CINEMA) in large red letters above the entrance to documenta
Halla promise that consciously anticipated its misinterpretation.

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Peter Friedl, Kino (1997)

Photo: Werner Maschmann documenta Archiv

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Participating Artists

A
Adams, Robert (Adams,
Robert Hickman & Adams,
Robert H.)
Althamer, Pawe

B
Bamgboy, Oladle Ajiboy
(Bamboy, Oladle
Ajiboy)
Baumgarten, Lothar
Beaugrand, Catherine

C
Cabelo (Saad, Rodrigo)
Clark, Lygia (Pimentel Lins,
Lygia)

D
Del Giudice, Daniele
(DelGiudice, Daniele &
Giudice, Daniele del)
E
Elsken, Ed van der (Van der
Elsken, Ed)
Esposito, Bruna
F
Fahlstrm, Oyvind
(Fahlstrm, yvind &
Fahlstrm, Axel Christian)
Faigenbaum, Patrick
Farocki, Harun

G
Gillick, Liam
Gob Squad & Stefan Pucher
(Pucher, Stefan & Gob
Squad)
Godard, Jean-Luc
Goebbels, Heiner
H
Haacke, Hans
Hains, Raymond
Hamilton, Richard
Hamilton, Richard & Ecke
Bonk
Hapaska, Siobhn

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Archigram
Archizoom Associati

Art & Language (Art and

Language & Gruppe Art &
Language & Art &
Language Institute)
Aya & Gal Middle East

Beckett, Samuel
Blank & Jeron (Blank,
Joachim & Karl Heinz Jeron
& Jeron, Karl Heinz &
Joachim Blank)
Broodthaers, Marcel

Bunting, Heath
Burnett, Charles
Bustamante, Jean-Marc

Coleman, James
Collective (La Ciutat de la
Gent & Ciutat de la Gent &
The City of the People &
City of the People)

Craig, Stephen
Crandall, Jordan

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Douglas, Stan

Evans, Walker
Eyck, Aldo van (VanEyck,
Aldo)

Feng Mengbo (Feng, Mengbo

& Mengbo, Feng)
Fischli & Weiss (Gruppe
Fischli-Weiss & Fischli und
Weiss & Fischli-Weiss)
Friedl, Peter

Friese, Holger

Golz, Dorothee
Graham, Dan
Grand, Toni
Graumann, Herv

Grimonprez, Johan
Grimonprez, Johan & Herman
Asselberghs
Grossarth, Ulrike

Hausswolff, Carl Michael von

(Hauswolff, Carl Michael
von)
Heiman, Michal
Herold, Jrg
Hill, Christine (Hill, Christie)
Hller, Carsten & Trockel,
Rosemarie (Trockel,
Rosemarie & Carsten
Hller)

Hohenbchler, Christine &

Irene (Hohenbuchler,
Christine & Irene)
Honetschlger, Edgar
Huber, Felix S. & Philip
Pocock & Florian Wenz &
Udo Noll (Pocock, Philip &
Florian Wenz & Udo Noll &
Felix S. Huber & Wenz,
Florian & Udo Noll & Felix
S. Huber & Philip Pocock &
Noll, Udo & Felix S. Huber
& Philip Pocock & Florian
Wenz)
Hybrid WorkSpace

J
Jackson Pollock Bar

Jodi

K
Kelley, Mike & Tony Oursler &
Diedrich Diederichsen

Kippenberger, Martin
Koester, Joachim (Koester,

Konrad, Aglaia
Koolhaas, Rem

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(Oursler, Tony & Mike

Kelley & Diedrich
Diederichsen &
Diederichsen, Diedrich &
Tony Oursler & Mike
Kelley)
Kelley, Mike & Tony Oursler
(Oursler, Tony & Mike
Kelley)
Kentridge, William
L
Lafont, Suzanne
Landau, Sigalit
Lassnig, Maria
M
Marker, Chris
Marshall, Kerry James
Marthaler, Christoph & Anna
Viebrock (Viebrock, Anna &
Christph Marthaler)
Matta-Clark, Gordon (Clark,
Gordon Matta-)

http://www.documenta.de/en/retrospective/documenta_x#

Joakim)
Kogler, Peter

Kroesinger, Hans-Werner

Lauwers, Jan
Legrand, Jozef
Lerch, Antonia

Levitt, Helen
Lovink, Geert

McQueen, Steve
Milev, Yana (Milev, Jana &
A.O.B.B.M.E)
Mller, Christian Philipp
Mosler, Mariella

Moulne, Jean-Luc
Mucha, Reinhard
Mullican, Matt
Muntadas, Antonio

N
Ngui, Matthew
Nicolai, Carsten

Nicolai, Olaf
Nordey, Stanislas

O
Oiticica, Hlio (HO)

Orozco, Gabriel

P
Page, Adam
Pataut, Marc
Peck, Raoul

Peljhan, Marko
Pistoletto, Michelangelo
Pittman, Lari

R
Radio Mentale
Reeb, David

Richter, Gerhard
Roberts, Liisa

S
Schlingensief, Christoph
Schneider, Anne-Marie
Schoellkopf, Jean-Louis
Schtte, Thomas
Simon, Michael

Prini, Emilio

Sissako, Abderrahmane
Smithson, Alison & Peter with
Nigel Henderson
Sokurov, Aleksandr (Sokurow,
Alexander)
Spero, Nancy
Steinbrecher, Erik

Stuart, Meg & Gary Hill

Suleiman, Elia
Syberberg, Hans-Jrgen

T
Tolj, Slaven

Tunga

Tzaig, Uri

V
Vallet Kleiner, Danielle
(Kleiner, Danielle Vallet)

Vito Acconci Studio (Acconci

Studio)

W
Walde, Martin
Wall, Jeff
Wang, Jian Wei (Wang
Jianwei & Jianwei, Wang &
Wang Xingwei)

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Warmerdam, Marijke van

(Van Warmerdam, Marijke)
Weinberger, Lois
West, Franz

Winogrand, Garry
Wohlgemuth, Eva & Andreas
Baumann (Baumann,
Andreas & Wohlgemuth,
Eva)

Zittel, Andrea

Zobernig, Heimo

Y
Yassour, Penny Hes (Yassur,
Penny & Yasr, Penn Hes &
Hes Yassour, Penny)
Z
Zaremba, Lilian

Related Material

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documenta X , short guide, Cantz

1955
Verlag, Ostfildern- Ruit, 1997

documenta
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documenta X , magazine, Cantz Verlag,

Ostfildern- Ruit, 1997

Lois Weinberger, Das ber die

Planzen/ist eins mit Ihnen (1997)

1959
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