Sorbonne Artgallery

 

documenta XV + I

 

The piece entitled documenta XV+I is a joint work by Cannelle Tanc and Frédéric Vincent. It was first presented at the Kunstlerhaus Frize in Hamburg in 2007, during documenta 12 in Kassel, under the title documenta XII + I. The piece consists of large prints on the walls. These large digital prints, representing the names of the various artistic directors and artists who participated in the various documenta. The names of the men are highlighted in blue, those of the women are highlighted in pink, the groups or collectives of mixed artists are in purple. This installation immerses the viewer in the history of the documenta event. The viewer witnesses the evolution of artistic practices, and also the sensitive passage from modern art to contemporary art. It is made witness of the change and the evolutions of the manners. For the first four documenta, we note that there is a lot of blue on the wall and still very little pink. It was not until documenta 10 that the curator was a curator, Catherine David in this case. From 1955, the year of the first documenta, to 1997, the year of documenta 10, it took 42 years to see a woman curate the exhibition. It was at documenta 5 in 1972, organized by Harald Szeemann, that contemporary art made its appearance. At documenta 8 in 1987, we see an interaction between different disciplines such as video, music and poetry.

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The first documenta was initiated by Arnold Bode and organized by Bode and Werner Haftmann in 1955 in Kassel. Werner Haftmann wrote in the introduction to the catalog: "The idea of organizing an international exhibition of 20th century art in Germany today seems so obvious that it needs no further justification." Today we are witnessing a development of Biennials, Triennials and Fairs throughout the world. One of the reasons for this development is economic. The documenta has become an essential economic factor for the city of Kassel. The documenta is an exhibition in the tradition of the great international exhibitions such as the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1903, the Sunderbrond Exhibition in Cologne in 1912 or the Armory Show in New York in 1913. But documenta is not only an exhibition project, it is also a "curatorial" project. The documenta XV + I project is conceived as an arrangement, a stratification. An exhibition thought in an artistic, political and social interrelation. Points of contact, links and transitions between different fields. An interrelationship present and shared between being an artist and a curator. An exhibition conceived as the documenta can be today, that is to say a constellation, with a will of circulation.

 

The project documenta XV + I is a zone of activity where all the artists of all the documenta are presented and a meta-documenta in itself. The documenta XV + I is the largest of the documenta while being the smallest of them. It is not a question here of ignoring or sweeping aside the past, on the contrary, this installation is to be considered as a pre-documenta work, a work that is lucid and has an acute sense of context. A work that through the enumeration of the names of the men and women who participated in all the documenta calls for changes, for the evolution of our society. Everything is precisely concentrated in this sphere, in this cycle in this sequence of names. This "be yourself" is also "invent yourself", a way to respond to the poetic concept of reason and a unique opportunity to produce life.