class discussion Documenta(13)

Group Discussion of Documenta(13)                        19 September 2012

[note that quotes are approximated, feel free to comment if misquoted. I left it anonymous as this is a public blog]

We began by speaking of the experience of being under siege (this was one of the four organizing principles used by the curator). With so much work at Documenta, many felt it was an overwhelming experience. I myself, feeling that I lacked appreciation, felt alienation, yet when I left for an hour, I found that Kassel, the city containing the show, was unaware or didn’t care – thus we make our own jail cell bars. We besiege ourselves.

Some, faced with the impossibility to seeing all the art, took their time, but then - at the end – suddenly started rushing. The waiting line, especially for Kentridge, was a theme connected to being under siege – though we as audience were trying to get in rather than out.

Siege exists in artists lives here, not like it does in Kabul, Aphganistan, but in Europe due to increasing austerity, find the environment has changes. Now art has a greater need to justify itself in order to get funding. This leads to more intensity of questions of, “What is art?” and “Why are you doing this?”

I wonder if this is a good thing?

In an attempt to find peace, decrease the feeling of siege and find meaning, many read the wall text. Due to my tradition as a filmmaker (and others as graphic designers), we’re trained that the work should stand alone so I often didn’t. Further, this allowed for personal interpretation. Now I realize from the discussion to appreciate it, or to add a dimension, you may need the text (the sound composition in train station more apt to be appreciated if you know it was written in concentration camp, likewise the apples). As one attendee said, “The key was to see the process the artist was working through.”

One of us asked, “How can we communicate without words,” after all it seemed that  Tino seghal didn’t need it. Another, a slow reader, felt pressure to read and felt the show was too text heavy.

PERFORMANCE

We then moved to discuss the theme of Performance – Cardiff a prime example as the work directed the audience as a director would instruct an actor. Similarly, Tino Seghal, you become part of the performance. But what does it mean to be in a performance?

It was suggested that when there is a clear division of you, from what you are observing, you are not in performance. Whereas, when you are taking up space inside the piece, that seems to be more of a performer. The question arose, “Do you need to make audience aware ahead of time that they will be cast as a performer? How much can you ask them to perform even if you have gotten permission?”

Key to the discussion of performance is the word intention:

One of us said, “If someone puts a frame around me, does it make me automatically a performer?” Another asked, “If you put a dog on stage, is he a performer?” And then, “What if you are a performer but don’t know you are… are you a performer?”

I asked, “What is role of status as a performer?” After all, when you realize you are on stage, the main question for me would be, “Are you empowered or disempowered?”

With Cardiff one person asked while in the experience, “Am I performer?”

Whereas in Tino Seghal one person felt they were not a performer, but another said in relation Seghal, “I was a performer but I stayed too long and saw the mechanism. Then the joy of being carried into the performance and joy of disorientation was lost. At first I was a participant, but when the mystery lost so was joy.”

This led to the question, “Is being a spectator really passive?” (later we showed a YouTube video of the Bayeux Tapestry being animated and someone shouted out, “now this is truly passive!” – for no longer did you need to imagine the action, the animation acted it out – and controlled how much time you look at each section as it panned across at a steady pace).

I said, “For me, it’s about the expectations and the status”. When on stage, others expect you to do or be something, but in the passive role – as a detached spectator - you have no expectations, more control, and perhaps less mystery/spontaneity. If the recognition that I am on stage leads to my greater joy, ease, or status I am fine – but if it’s after a hectic day in the office, or makes me uncomfortable, then I resent those who pushed me (or asked me) to be on stage.

Someone asked, “What is the responsibility when an artist takes the stage?”

Was Documenta(13) useful for Kabul just by increasing awareness? The video teaching stone carving at the spot where the Buddha statues destroyed, showed a greater contribution, but is that art? Would it inspire and thus qualifies? Is it art, simply because it was included in Documenta?

Art was defined by one of us as, “a way to communicate a feeling.” This is to say that art doesn’t need to have an intention in its creation.

One of us spoke of the example exhibition about the river basin which seemed to be very didactic. It was information you could read in National Geographic, and it’d reach more people so if the artist wants to create change, why show it at Documenta?

Then we took a break and then when we came back, one of us suggested that the theme may have been artificial, or too much of a “Catch all”. The 4 part organizing theme decentralizes the question, “What can be an artwork?” then if the terms of the answer are so broad, the question becomes devaluated. An artist who stops making art, is taking a retreat.

For me, I liked the structure (having a left-brained Apollonian preference), even though this four part structure pretty muich allows for everything and excludes nothing. But I see the contrary position - if the theme is so wide, it is meaningless. Nevertheless, I found comfort from them, and a place from which to discuss the art… Even though others would have served just as well, or perhaps better.

But one of us asked, “What if the theme, rather than the four questions of retreat, performance, hope, and siege - were chair, street, computer and eye?” wouldn’t that have done the same thing which is basically nothing? “These guidelines don’t provide any guidance,” he added and suggested that we need either need less or more interference from the curator – this middle ground is useless. He mentioned the curator who bound a show with the theme “red” – and thus it was able to be about the work itself. As red is just a color it doesn’t interfere with meaning. Of course, does a work really ever stand alone? “Your experience is affected by the work placed beside it,” suggested one of us.

Others suggested the theme of context, or place, or how we relate to each other would be more accurate themes of the work we saw at Documenta (13). Margo asked, “Do you want to know how the curator made the selection?”

We talked about my dislike of The End of Summer by Epaminonda & Cramer, but Summer loved it. I posed that perhaps it’s a masculine/feminine expectation as well as perhaps my (for better or worse) 13-year-old boy aesthetic.

In that exhibit, I felt that the room that featured a partially blocked table was intentionally creating tension to be cute – but when I was confronted by something similar in the science museum with a “do not touch” sign, I liked this same tension. This is because, as it was not intending to be that way (not be cute or manipulate by design), I was able to appreciate the tension of encountering a shape or handle that invited me to use it – and then a sign from an external authority – telling me that I could not.

 RETREAT

The Aldof letter. He wrote apologizing for not being too busy to be part of Documenta(13) and this five page letter itself became a prominent work in the show. The irony is that he spent so much time to honestly spoke about how you have to live up to expectations.

By including it, it was about what art is. It was made by an artist who didn’t attend his work to be presented as art. But was it art? It was displayed like art history, so perhaps not. Perhaps it wasn’t an artwork, but rather a staging.

Personally, for me, if it’s in a show, it’s art.  :-)

HOPE

One said there was a lot of hope at Documenta(13). Aldof’s letter showed humanity. “I would like to be useful in my work. Even if I do a small thing.” Maybe art serves to ignite rather than solve. “War makes a statement, but so does art.”