I am happy to be back after a busy summer. Fresh off of a plane from Germany, I am sharing a few text sightings I had while at dOCMENTA(13). This was my first time attending a Documenta exhibition, and it was a great experience. For this post, I want to share a few photos of works I saw at dOCUMENTA(13) along with the texts that were referenced by the artists or artworks that incorporated books and magazines.
100 Notes—100 Thoughts
One major component of curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev’s exhibition actually began in 2011 with a publication series called 100 Notes—100 Thoughts, and extends through the exhibition with an event series called “Readers’ Circle.” Authors from a range of disciplines—art, science, psychology, political theory, and many others contributed to the notebooks that were meant to explore ways of thinking about the contemporary world. During the “Readers’ Circle” events, visitors are invited to listen to a reading of a notebook by a scholar, researcher or cultural practitioner.
Kader Attia
The Repair from Occident to Extra-Occidental Cultures, 2012
Roman Ondak
Observations, 1995/2011
Courtesy the artist. Photo: Anders Sune Berg.
Nalini Malani
In Search of Vanished Blood, 2012
Listed text influences:
Title from the Urdu poem “The Rebel’s Silhouette” by Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1991)
Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays by Christa Wolf (1998)
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke (2008)
Hamletmachine by Heiner Muller (1984)
Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett (1958)
“Draupadi” by Mahasweta Devi (1978)
Tejal Shah
Between the Waves, 2012
Listed text influence:
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl (2000)
Courtesy of Tejal Shah. Photo: Krysztof Zielinski.
Javier Tellez
Artaud’s Cave, 2012
Listed text influence:
The Conquest of Mexico by Antonin Artaud (1934)
Courtesy of Javier Téllez. Photo: Henrik Stromberg.
Walid Raad
Scratching on Things I Could Disavow, 2008-ongoing
Listed text influence:
The Withdrawal of Tradition Past a Surpassing Disaster by Jalal Toufic (2009)
Courtesy Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut - Hamburg; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London. Photo: Anders Sune Berg.
Gerard Byrne
A man and a woman make love, 2012
Listed text influence:
On January 27th, 1928, in the apartment of Mssrs. Marcel Duhamel, Jacques Prévert, and Yves Tanguy at 54 Rue du Château, Paris, a loose collective of the Surrealist Group held the first of a series of round table discussions investigating the field of eroticism. The discussion was transcribed for publication, and subsequently published in La Révolution Surréaliste, nº11, quatrième année, 15 Mars in 1928.
Courtesy the artist; Lisson Gallery, London; Green on Red Gallery, Dublin; Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin/Stockholm. Photo: Nils Klinger.
Paul Chan
Volumes—inncompleteset, 2012
Matias Faldbakken
Untitled (Book Sculpture), 2008/2012
Courtesy Matias Faldbakken. Photo: Henrik Stromberg