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Documenta 11_Platform 5/Exhibition

Group show at Documenta Halle. 2002
Date: 8 June, 2002 until 15 September, 2002
Curator: Okwui Enwezor
Organiser: Documenta Foundation

Documenta is a multi site exhibition based in the German city of Kassel that occurs every 5 years.

From the Documenta 11 website: “Documenta 11 in Kassel will show works by a total of 116 artists and artists’ groups. Most of these works were specially created for Documenta 11, and many of the artists are showing comprehensive and complex exhibits. These projects are often multimedial, and they combine various forms of presentation. Over the period of 100 days, installations will become workshops, or be turned into offices, or stages for performances and locations of interaction. In addition there will be temporary projects including plays for the theater, concerts, or performances that will take place at arranged dates and times. Finally, some artists and groups with works that generally have a communicative approach will hold public presentations and will directly involve the audience in this aspect of their work. These events are an essential part of the Documenta 11 exhibition.”

Documenta XI was distinct for a number of reasons, and differed markedly from a number of the Documenta that had preceded it. Even as recently as Documenta IX, the interlinked series of exhibitions were being regarded as Eurocentric in their construction. Under Enwezor’s directorship, such an accusation certainly had no place. Frieze , Issue 6, September - October 1992, carried a lengthy feature on Documenta IX, written by Stuart Morgan (Body Language, Documenta IX: Three Perspectives). In the text, Morgan referred to the absence of artists from Africa. “… They might also think him [Jan Hoet, the Belgium curator of Documenta IX] Euro-centric. After a month in Africa, he found nothing he thought worth including. In his own words, he met artists who operate in complete isolation. ‘For these people there is no gallery or museum-world, there is no correct context for their art. From an anthropological view that is very interesting to us… Art today always has to do with criticism and conflict - yet neither exists in Africa. In Europe the artist is always a critics… In Africa and also in India… art is totally isolated.” The quote (which appears here exactly as Morgan had edited it) was followed by Morgan’s musings on the credibility of Joet’s view.