Last month, for the first time in its 11-year history, ArtReview magazine named a curator to the top of its annual list of the art world's 100 most powerful figures.
It was an unusual move, but the magazine felt that the curator, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, fundamentally changed the concept of art exhibitions with her curation of dOCUMENTA (13), a contemporary art show that occurs once every five years in Kassel, Germany, and which ended its most recent 100-day run in September.
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In expanding the show to include not just visual art, but works by philosophers, social theorists, and historians, as well as films, workshops and performances, Christov-Bakargiev attempted "something deeper and philosophically unusual," according to ArtReview.
Unlike other art fairs, dOCUMENTA (13) was centered around a philosophical question: not who thinks, but what thinks, according to Steven Henry Madoff. "Christov-Bakargiev proposes that things, not just humans, speak; things feel, are violated, and voice their wills," Madoff wrote in Modern Painters magazine. She explored the question through numerous fields, from social and political to literary and economic.
The exhibitions were provocative, asking viewers to rethink how they perceive objects. There was an immense range of works, from Central Asian dolls dating from 2500 BC to an installation of flowing air by British artist Ryan Gander. One of the most talked-about exhibits was Our Lady of Bees, a reclining nude sculpture that featured a buzzing active beehive for a head (pictured). The walls of one room were covered in socially-conscious song lyrics by artists like Bob Marley and The Clash while the accompanying music played from a jukebox in the background. There was even an outpost of Occupy Documenta, where people were encouraged to discuss politics and philosophy.
Christov-Bakargiev also expanded the geographical scope of the show, creating satellite exhibitions in Egypt, Afghanistan, and Canada, and taking over the entire city of Kassel with works by nearly 200 artists.
And even though her most ambitious idea — to ship a 37-ton meteorite from Argentina — did not pan out, Madoff still called dOCUMENTA (13) "the most important exhibition to date of the 21st century."
With dOCUMENTA (13), Christov-Bakargiev took the concept of the art exhibition somewhere new. It was not just an overview of the current contemporary art world, but an exhibit with a philosophical point of view and expansive definition of art.
Photographer Nick Vlcek visited the exhibition in Kassel during its final days. He shared some photos of dOCUMENTA (13) with us, as well as his impressions of the show, in his own words.
"Empty. The first impression you got walking into the Fridericianum, the main building at dOCUMENTA (13)—the official name of this thirteenth iteration of the exhibition—was of nothingness: the large halls of the first floor were nearly all empty, save for a subtle, light breeze blowing through, courtesy of artist Ryan Gander. An auspicious start."
"It’s not very often you are allowed to walk on top of any art inside an institution, but that was the case with one of Fabio Mauri’s pieces. He was a writer, publisher, film director, and artist, whose work sought an understanding of the human condition through language."
"These placards were marched around Kassel during the opening days of dOCUMENTA (13) as part of the Ida Applebroog exhibition. The source of the phrases are excerpts from personal files that have been kept private for over thirty years."
"Tsetse flies. Two of them, a fertile female and a sterile male, were a statement by artist Pratchaya Phinthong about how external world powers attempt to control the deadly tsetse fly in Africa through radiation, rather than local approaches, such as simple traps."
"Detail of a painting by Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, one of the Papunya Tula Artists of Australia, a Aboriginal collective set up in the 1970s. He grew up in a family that lived for millennia on the the salt lakes of the Gibson Desert, who now presents the sacred knowledge of the first people, the Tingari, in a form that can be shown to a general public."
"Remnants of the “wildly eccentric” undertaking, Life? or Theater? A Play with Music described as an artwork whose medium is autobiography. The artist, Charlotte Salomon, died in Auschwitz while five months pregnant, in 1943."
"Inside the so-called ‘brain’ of the exhibition, a rotunda at the main museum, are a set of special displays that represent the ideas that the fair was organized around. The two spotlighted stones are from Giuseppe Penone, one found in a river, the other carved from Carrara marble in lavish imitation. The white capital letters nearby, “THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE OF” are courtesy of conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner."
"The oldest and one of the most talked about works at dOCUMENTA (13) were the Bactrian Princesses from northern Afganistan. These tiny sculptural objects are believed to be approximately four thousand years old, made of chlorite, limestone, and lapis lazuli."
"Coupla bricks, right? In this context they are instruments of subversion—not by being thrown—but by infuriating members of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, presented here by Tamas St. Turba. Because people were banned from listening to anything but official propaganda, the resistance came up with the idea of Czechoslovak Radio: a brick that people pretended to listen to. Despite this nonsensical notion, the army confiscated thousands of these 'devices,' an action that only encouraged more creative humor and resolution in the populace. "
"dOCUMENTA (13) officially welcomed Occupy Documenta to put up a major presence right outside the entrance to the main building. If you wanted to talk politics or philosophy, or were seriously in need of a warm meal or shelter, this was the place to hang."
"One of relatively few painters whose works were selected for exhibition was Etal Adnan. She is an accomplished writer and as well as visual artist, born in Beirut and settled in Sausalito, California."
"Other painted work was made interactive in the Documenta-Halle by the use of covers that needed to be peeled away to display the works underneath, in this case the brushwork of Gustav Metzger, known for his auto-creative/auto-destructive theories of art."
"Thomas Bayrle had one of the largest indoor spaces to work in, filling one wall with patterned cardboard cartons opposite this massive illustration of an airplane…"
"…which upon close examination…"
"…is made up of millions of tiny planes."
"His work Carmaggeddon also filled the hall with a series of motorbike, car, and airplane engines that would spring to life at seemingly random intervals. He says engineering, '…is a creative profession that deals with matter in a very real way… We who make art must strive for precision in our thinking and acting.'"
"Ascending the stairs in a nondescript building off the city square, you were amazed to see extraordinarily vivid, large-scale renderings of rivers and mountains rendered in chalk on blackboard by Tacita Dean."
"American artist Mark Dion grafted his dOCUMENTA (13) contribution onto a work from the late 18th century by Carl Schildbach, who created a library of books made from local trees and shrubs, each containing a sample of the tree itself or a wax replica. Dion created a new housing for the collection and added six new books, five of which represent continents not included in the original work."
"The white walls are covered in lyrics. In the center of the room sits a coin-free jukebox spinning out 100 socially conscious songs by Gil Scott-Heron, Bob Marley, Stereolab, Cheb Mami, The Clash, Gogol Bordello, Billie Holiday, Los Tigres del Norte, and more. It’s a work by Susan Hiller called Thoughts Are Free."
"Anna Maria Maiolino, born in Italy but for most of her life a Brazilian resident, took over the house formerly occupied by the park’s caretaker and overran it with hand rolled clay forms of various shapes and sizes. The overall effect was surrealistic—some would say creepy—and could be described as consciously walking through a dream."
"Everywhere you poked around the house you found more of the artist’s Here and There."
"Walking through the park you came across a building marked with a large SANATORIUM sign. If you were willing to check yourself in, you’d get a brief interview with a therapist and would be assigned three out of a possible sixteen psychological and artistic therapies: Gestalt, primal scream, Fluxus Happenings, hypnosis, folk rituals, and more. Instigator Pedro Reyes hopes this to be a prototype for a lasting type of public service."
"Though located at the back of the park, the most buzz generated by any exhibit had to be Pierre Huyghe’s Untilled. On your way into this wooded area you passed piles of concrete tiles for construction, raw asphalt, aphrodisiac and psychotropic plants, and an uprooted Joseph Beuys’ oak tree, while two white Spanish greyhounds—one with a leg dipped in magenta paint—frolicked, then disappeared. In the center of it all lay Our Lady of Bees, a reclining nude that featured a beehive crawling with live bees for a head. The effect was stunning."
"If all this is starting to sound to you like a Bavarian Burning Man with more clothes and no playa dust, you are not far off. Here visitors relax alongside Song Dong’s Doing Nothing Garden, a garbage heap in the middle of an open field, sewn with flowers, weeds, and neon signs."
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