Adam Szymczyk and documenta 14

Several events in Athens are related to the venues in which they take place. One of them is a dance performance in the Piräus Archaeological Museum, where 15 artists presented a sequence of movements to the Athens choreographer, Kostas Tsioukas. The resulting choreography is intended to mediate a new view of the ancient art in the museum: According to Pierre Bal-Blanc “The aim is to bring movement into the Archaeological Museum. It’s all about offering new perspectives without putting on a spectacle.”[24] A weekly film programme entitled “Keimena” will be broadcast in cooperation with the Greek television station ERT. Every Monday around midnight until the middle of September 2017 it will show experimental documentary and feature films.[25]

Documenta 14 has been accused of many things: in Athens, of being a poor and unprofessional presentation of objects and installations, of missing captions and an unsatisfactory communication of the events[26]; in Kassel, of being a “careless presentation“ reflecting the boredom “felt by Szymczyk from the very start for the birthplace of Documenta”.[27] After the opening in Athens critics wrote that the “pressure towards technological features” had never been so powerful, “and the old question of whether there is a difference between art and ritual no longer appears to interest anyone”.[28] The press reacted to the opening in Kassel as follows: “It is difficult to resist the impression that an overstaffed team of curators has used second-class works from as far away as possible to demonstrate their lack of interest in the status quo of art.”[29] This is clearly the result of a theoretical superstructure about whose effects Szymczyk himself says, that it is “almost impossible” to realise a project that aims to make a political statement from within the organisational structure and restricted position of a state-sponsored cultural institution. [30]

Nonetheless, as Szymczyk stated in an interview with the documentary filmmaker, Natascha Pflaumbaum, documenta 14 was looking for art which changes the world and especially art outside the establishment. “I should like this exhibition to change the system in which contemporary art takes place today, an ossified system of institutions containing a sort of food chain in which museums, exhibitions, art fairs, artists, gallery owners, collectors and state institutions that dish out a little money for contemporary art are dependent upon one another. This system does not seem enough to return to art the powers with which it can change society.”[31] For Pflaumbaum, Athens has managed to turn a part of this change into reality: “When documenta 14 opened in Athens in April it aroused an overwhelming amount of attention. Athens is on a high, an art high. The world is looking towards Athens in a way in which the head of documenta 14, Adam Szymczyk, would never have dreamt of. His idea for Athens has taken off. The Megaron concert hall is full of journalists and art experts. And on the stage: all the artists at documenta 14. What a statement!”[32]