Page 103 - ARTE!Brasileiros #40

venue also shows works that approach language, such as Susan Monet, Matisse, Renoir and Chagall. Unable to bring the collection,
Hiller’s video on languages n extinction. which was assembled by the gallerist and art historian Hildebrand
i
The relationship with the place is also intense at Palais Bellevue, one Gurllit (1895–1956), in a controversial act, Szymczyk presents
of the few buildings that survived World War II, originally conceived works by the painter Louis Gurlitt, Hildebrand’s grandfather, who
as an astronomical observatory and the first home of Jérôme initiated the family relationship with art and painted views of the
Bonaparte as king of Westphalia during Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Acropolis, one of the hallmarks of German Romanticism. Bringing
expansion. The structural issue of wars—Kassel was the center of the Gurlitt issue to the fore, connecting art and Nazism, is one
production of military articles during the War and still is the largest the highlights of the show.
manufacturer of tanks, although they are forbidden to circulate in the This network of connections between past and present, Kassel and
country—is brought to mind by the video installation La sombra, by Athens, gains militant contours when we see the work by Lorenza
the Guatemalan Regina José Galindo. In it, the artist is shown running Böttner (1959–1994), who was born Ernst Lorenz, in Chile, at a
from a tank, in what must be one of the equipment’s testing fields. German family. Having lost her arms as a child, she returns with
On the other hand, other works in the Palais approach the relation her mother to Germany, studies art in Kassel and learns to paint
with nature and forests, after all the venue affords an astonishing with her mouth and feet, executing impressive works. She even
view of the region. One of the works that approach this subject is defended a thesis against the concept of handicapped.
that of the Colombian Abel Rodrígues, an Indian from the Cahuinari Radical gestures are seen, even if not as dramatically charged,
region, who is seen in delicate drawings of the forest, made from in the works of the feminist activists Annie Sprinkle and Beth
the knowledge from his family, but also assisting researchers. Stephens, who since the 1960s have been producing works that
Rodríguez refuses to let his work be labeled as contemporary tackle gender issues.
art, as with other participants in the show, such as the activists In Kassel, the documenta 14 is divided into 33 spaces, some with
of the collective of Syrian filmmakers Abounaddara. Who could be only one work, others with about 100 artists, such as the Neue
part of this group is Britta Marakatt-Labba, from the Sami Artist Galerie, where Gerhard Richter is featured, for instance, with
Group, with its impressive epic embroideries, which tell stories of only a small portrait of Arnold Bode (1900–1977 ), the creator of
the Nordic countries and ranges between art and crafts. documenta, which is also a theme in the venue.
Putting Athens and Kassel side by side, more than 250 artists
IMMIGRANTS are featured, 149 alive and 106 dead, an impressive amount in
At the press conference that kickstarted the German portion a grandiose and complex show, as we rarely see, for weaving so
of documenta, which lasted almost three hours and where all many relations, dealing with so many subjects, being generous in
responsible curators spoke, Szymczyk suggested that the first so many languages, being present in so many spaces. It is virtually
place to visit in the city should be the northern region, where impossible to cover everything—even those who have taken their
most of the city’s immigrants live, such as Turks, Ethiopians time in both places—but the ultimate feeling is that this documenta
and Bulgarians. There, in the shop windows of a decadent and is marked as an exhibition that unfolds in networks, valuing
abandoned commercial street, artists such as Angelo Plessas public spaces, exchanges, pressing issues, that is, everything
and Vivian Suter created pieces that can be seen by passers-by, the neoliberal wave dislikes. Once again Kassel, now together
granting access to part of the show to the immigrants who pass with Athens, makes history.
by daily, a delicate transformation in their everyday lives.
The issue of immigration is gaining momentum in the exhibition at 1 | THE PRECARIOUS ARCHIVE, STEFANOS TSIVOPOULOS
the Neue Neue Galerie, a new exhibition venue in the city, former
post office headquarters with a very high ceiling, which gave it the 2 | PARTHENON DE LIVROS, BY THE ARGENTINEAN MARTA MINUJIN AND, ACROPOLIS
nickname of Kassel’s Turbine Hall, certainly an exaggeration. There REDUX (2004), KENDELL GEERS
are works addressing the murder of Halit Yozgat (1985–2006), son
of Turkish immigrants, who was born and died in Kassel, victim of 3 | VIEW OF LORENZA BOETTNER’S INSTALLATION, WITH THE ARTIST’S DRAWINGS,
a neo-Nazi terrorist group. The crime, which happened ten years PAINTINGS AND ARCHIVE MATERIALS
ago and until today awaits for a trial, was committed at an internet
cafe and is re-enacted following techniques of the forensic police INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTA 14 KASSEL INTERVIEW | | PAGES
by a group called The Society of Friends of Halit. 20 AND 21
In this section of the exhibition, many works refer to the issue of
Palestinian Ahlam Shibli, which produced images of the integration DOCUMENTA WAS
immigration in Kassel, such as the series of photographs by the
with a majority of Turkish players, but also including Libyans, “INVIGORATING” FOR
of foreigners in the city, such as the soccer team FC Bosporus,
Croats and even Germans, and participates in the fifth division.
Traumas of contemporary society are addressed by the Spanish THE GREEK ART SCENE
artist Daniel García Andújar, who recreates Goya’s series The
Disasters of War, with actual scenes of current conflicts, and even MARINA FOKIDIS, CREATOR OF THE MAGAZINE SOUTH AS STATE OF
created an “anti-monument” about a Nazi ephemeris in Kassel, MIND AND OF THE CURATORIAL TEAM OF THE SHOW IN ATHENS,
which would be burned in June.
The traumas of Nazism, however, are gaining strength in the ARGUES THAT THE EXHIBITION HAS GIVEN NEW LIFE TO THE PLACE
traditional Neue Galerie, a local museum, which for the first time AFTER EIGHT YEARS OF CRISIS
is entirely occupied by the documenta and creates dense relations
about the German history. Among the plots created in this space, BY FABIO CYPRIANO
one of the curators’ wishes emerges, which was to expose the
whole collection of Cornelius Gurlitt, with 1,285 works confiscated ATHENS HAS FORMALLY CONCLUDED ITS PART in documenta
by the German courts in 2012, because they comprised works 14 in mid-July, with a total of one hundred days of exhibition in the
confiscated by the Nazis, including many modernist masters like Greek city, but for the local scene the show goes on happening

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