Program suggestions for groups and travel agents
documenta 14
Athens 8.4.–16.7.
Kassel 10.6.–17.9.
2017
www.documenta.de
documenta
documenta is recognized as the world’s most renowned and debated international exhibition of contemporary art. documenta was
founded in Kassel by a group of experts and aficionados led by the
artist and designer Arnold Bode. Their intention was to show that
modern art had a place in the process of reconstructing German
society after World War II. The specific timing and the initial choice
of locale allowed documenta to evolve into a venture that has now
been in progress for over sixty years. Since its inception in 1955,
documenta has welcomed thousands of artists and cultural practitioners from diverse contexts and locations around the globe.
Every five years, documenta presents new directions to an international audience. Now in existence for six decades, documenta
has estab­lished a reputation as a constantly changing institution
in the city of Kassel—and a major force in the process of shaping
the global discourse on contemporary art.
documenta 1955, Museum Fridericianum, photo: Günther Becker © documenta Archiv
Artistic Director
documenta 14
Adam Szymczyk is cofounder of the Foksal Gallery Foundation
in Warsaw, at which he worked as curator from 1997 to 2003
before becoming director of the Kunsthalle Basel, where he
organized over 100 exhibitions until the end of 2014. In 2008 he
curated “When things cast no shadow,” the 5th Berlin Biennale
for Contemporary Art, in collaboration with Elena Filipovic. He is
a member of the board of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
and received the 2011 Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial
A­
chie­
vement from the Menil Foundation in Houston. Adam
Szym­czyk was appointed Artistic Director of documenta 14 by
an independent international jury in November 2013.
team documenta 14, photo: Gina Folly
documenta 14
Each documenta is a unique endeavor that progresses toward
a final outcome through multiple phases of research and discus­
sion, proceeding on the basis of the original concept proposed
by the Artistic Director. Accompanied by lively public debate,
each documenta serves as a forum for reflecting on and presenting global developments in contemporary art, culture, and
society, and as a tool used to rewrite art history and redefine
contemporary exhibition prac­tice. Every five years, documenta
pre­
sents new directions to an international audience. Artistic
Director Adam Szymczyk has proposed a twofold structure for
the exhibition, as reflected in the working title “Learning from
Athens.” In 2017, Kassel and the Greek capital will host the exhibition on an equal footing: Kassel has relinquished its hitherto
undisputed position as the central exhibition venue in favor of
another role, namely that of a guest in Athens. The different locations and diver­gent histori­cal, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds of Kassel and Athens have come to bear on the actual
process of creating the two parts of the exhibition, while inspiring
and influencing the individual works of art at the same time. For
documenta 14, participating artists have been invited to think and
produce within the context of the emerging dynamic relationship
between these two cities and to develop a work for each of the
two locations. documenta 14 seeks to encompass a multitude of
voices in, between, and beyond the two cities where it is situated,
reaching outside the European context from the vantage point of
the Mediterranean metropolis Athens, where Africa, the Middle
East, and Asia stand face to face. The physical and metaphorical distance be­
tween Kassel and Athens fundamentally alters
the way visitors will ex­pe­rience documenta 14—bringing into play
feelings of loss and longing while redefining their understanding
of what such an exhibition can be.
Information
Opening hours
Daily, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Admission prices Kassel regularreduced
1-day ticket € 22
€ 15
2-day ticket
€ 38
€ 27
Season ticket
€ 100
€ 70
Evening ticket (from 5 p.m.) € 10
€ 7
School classes/per person
€ 6
Family ticket
€ 50
Information about admission prices and tickets in Athens will be
available on the documenta website from the fall of 2016.
Students, trainees, recipients of basic social benefits (e.g. ALG II),
participants in voluntary service, refugees, and visitors with disabilities (disability class 50%) receive a discount on admission tickets.
Visitors with disabilities and the letters B, H, BL, AG, and G on their
identification cards pay the regular admission price and may take
one aide with them into the exhibition free of charge. Admission is
free for children aged 10 and under. The family ticket is valid for up
to two adults with up to three children (aged 10–16).
Guided tours
The documenta guided tours are a special service provided by
documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH and conducted
by specially trained members of the documenta 14 staff. They are
not the same as the general guided tours for tourists.
Groups (max. 15 pers.) | Duration approx. 2 hrs. | Price €170
Admission not included.
Information Centre
documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH
Friedrichsplatz 18 | 34117 Kassel | Germany
Tel. +49 (0)561-707270 | Fax +49 (0)561-7072739
[email protected] | www.documenta.de
Subscribe to the documenta 14 newsletter
at www.documenta14.de
documenta 14‘s Public Programs
Acknowledging the crisis of the modern utopia of the ”public space“ within the framework of the European Community—in
which documenta 14 is institutionally inscribed—as well as the unprecedented proliferation of counter-power movements
within art, culture, and society, the d14 Public Programs refuse to be a discursive side-event attached to an exhibition.
Instead, documenta 14 will evolve into a Parliament of Bodies (human and non-human, objects and social artifacts,
schemes and devices, ensembles, etc.), a performative structure that challenges not only the traditional divide between
exhibitions and public programs, but also the opposition between Kassel and Athens, the epistemologies of North and
South, normative thinking and subjugated knowledge and practices, as well as gender, sex, race, and class hierarchies.
Inspired by micropolitical self-organization, collaborative practices and radical pedagogic and artistic experiments, the
Parliament of Bodies is a critical device designed to promote both the exhibition and the public program. It will bring
together artists, activists, theorists, performers, children, workers, and migrants, etc. to experiment collectively with
the conditions of a radical transformation of the public sphere, the construction of social bonds, and a multiplicity of
heterogeneous forms of subjectivity beyond the politics of identity and national or state boundaries.
d14 “an education” Program d14 Publication Program
The “an education” program develops projects in cooperation with edu­cational institutions, artist-run spaces, and neighborhoods devoted to investigating the
relationship be­tween art, education, and the aesthetics
of human togetherness through the collective activa­
tion of the body. As a coherent project, “Learning from
Athens” (working title) is not subdivided into exhibitions, public programs, and educational activities, nor
will it come to land—like a spaceship—in Athens before
moving on to Kassel. It is a project that relies on collec­
tive action and individual capacities that emerge from
the context and builds friendships as it grows. Thus
“an education” develops an artist-led, process-based
approach involving research, interpersonal encounter,
listening, conversing, walking, reading, and looking—
gathering knowledge but also dispersing it like a living
organism. The encounter between art, artists, and the
public is our starting point as we embark on an open
road, learning from the contexts in which we immerse
ourselves. documenta 14 is an education that is spread
through bodies of collected knowledge and experience.
Methodos, Athens, photo: Freddie F.
South as a State of Mind #6 [documenta 14 #1], photo: Rosa Maria Rühling
The documenta publication program has a long and lauded
history. In keeping with that tradition, writing and publishing
in all of their forms are constituent components of documenta
14. “South as a State of Mind” heralds that interest. What
began as a magazine founded by Marina Fokidis in Athens in
2012 has been temporarily transformed into the documenta 14
journal. It is being published in four semi-annual special
issues until the opening of the exhibition in Athens and Kassel
in 2017. The documenta 14 “South” is conceived as a medium
for research, criticism, art, and literature during the years of
work preceding the d14 exhibition, one that helps define and
frame its concerns and aims. While the first volume of the
d14 “South” explored forms and figures of displacement and
dispossession, as well as the means of resistance associated with them, the upcoming issues will be concerned with
ideas about language and ecology, coloniality and neoclassicism, provenance and repatriation, and the relationship
among pedagogical, performative, and political processes.
The program is edited by Quinn Latimer, documenta 14’s
Editor-in-Chief of Publications, and documenta 14 Artistic
Director Adam Szymczyk. In addition to “South as a State
of Mind,” a guide and a reader will be issued for the opening
of the exhibition in 2017.
Thomas Schütte, Die Fremden (The Strangers), photo: Paavo Blåfield
Program suggestions for groups
- 1 night accommodation, including breakfast
- 1-day ticket for documenta €22
- Special guided tour around the documenta 14 exhibition site
by trained members of the documenta 14 staff
2 hours €170, max. no. of participants: 15
- Complimentary documenta 14 and Kassel information material
Price for 15 participants, travelling in their own bus, from €35 per
person in a double room | from €45 per person in a single room
3-day documenta 14 experience
Walter de Maria, Vertical Earth Kilometer, photo: Nils Klinger
KASSEL
2-day documenta 14 experience
- 2 nights accommodation, including breakfast
- 2-day ticket for documenta €38
- Special guided tour around the documenta 14 exhibition site
by trained members of the documenta 14 staff
2 hours €170, max. no. of participants: 15
- Complimentary documenta 14 and Kassel information material
Price for 15 participants, travelling in their own bus, from €35 per
person in a double room | from €45 per person in a single room
We would be delighted to add any of the following services to
your itinerary:
- Guided tour of outdoor artworks from previous documenta projects
- Admission and guided tour of the GRIMMWELT
- Admission and guided tour of Wilhelmshöhe Palace
-G
uided tour through the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
(UNESCO World Heritage Site)
- Dinner at an atmospheric restaurant
- Tickets for one of the documenta 14 side events
GRIMMWELT, photo: N. Frank
Additional suggestions
A range of other ideas to build into your itinerary can be found at
www.kassel-marketing.de
Agora Athens, photo: Richard Graces
Information & reservations
KASSEL MARKETING GMBH
Obere Königsstraße 15 | 34117 Kassel
Tel. +49 (0)561-707707
Fax +49 (0)561-7077-169
[email protected]
www.kassel-marketing.de
Activities for group itineraries
KASSEL
Guided tours & city tours
Guided tour of documenta outdoor artworks
This guided tour highlights the unique interrelationship
that has developed between works of art and the urban
landscape since 1955. The tour includes Walter de Maria’s
Vertical Earth Kilometer and Haus-Rucker-Co’s Rahmenbau,
complete with a view of Karlsaue Park (both from documenta 6), as well as Joseph Beuys’ 7000 Oaks, which caused
quite a stir at documenta 7.
DURATION: 2 hours | PRICE: €95
INFO & RESERVATIONS: Tel. +49 (0)561-707707
[email protected]
Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Europe’s biggest baroque hillside park, with its Hercules
monument and fountains, is listed as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. The guided tour gives visitors insight into
this unique and fascinating example of landscape design.
The WASSERSPIELE is a special fountain display well worth
seeing (May 1 to October 3, every Wednesday and Sunday,
as well as on public holidays, from 2:30 p.m.).
DURATION: 2 hours | PRICE: €95
INFO & RESERVATIONS: Tel. +49 (0)561-707707
[email protected]
TIP: Illuminated fountain display at night, with additional program from
5 p.m. on the castle level, first Saturday in June and July (starts 9:45 p.m.),
August (9.15 p.m.) and September (8:45 p.m.).
INFO: Tel. +49 (0)561-707707 | www.beleuchtete-wasserspiele.de
Museums
GRIMMWELT
The Brothers Grimm spent thirty years in the city of Kassel
between 1798 and 1841. The exhibitions in this outstanding
new museum building convey the multifaceted nature of
their life‘s work, and outline the legacy of that work for the
present day and the future. The Brothers Grimm’s personal
copies of the Household Tales that are on display here are
listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World program.
Athens
Discover Athens with a local
“This Is My Athens” is a special tour with a resident of the
Greek capital that provides fascinating insight into familiar
and less familiar areas of the city, and outlines the city’s
history and the story of its people and their traditions in a very
personal way.
Cultural highlights tour
This tour covers the cultural and historical treasures of
Athens: the Acropolis, the Propylaea, the gateway to the old
“Upper City,” the ruins of the mighty Parthenon temple, and
the “korai” that have been supporting the Erechtheion for
more than 2,400 years. Moving on to the National Museum,
this tour also sheds light on other aspects of life during the
age of classical antiquity.
Acropolis Museum
The new Acropolis Museum is one of the world’s most popular museums. Its exhibition space is reserved exclusively for
items found at the Acropolis.
Agora
The political and social heart of ancient Athens, the famous
Agora is one of the city’s most important archaeological
sites. It represents the remains of the social gathering place
and the market square where Greek democracy was born.
Interesting information and tips for groups and individual
travellers during documenta 14 in Athens can be found
online at www.thisisathens.org.
Information & bookings:
www.thisismyathens.org
[email protected]
INFO: Weinbergstraße 21 | Tel. +49 (0)561-5986190 | www.grimmwelt.de
Wilhelmshöhe Palace | Old Masters Picture Gallery and
Collection of Antiques
A top-class contrast to the documenta contemporary art
exhibitions. This exceptional collection of sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century art focuses primarily on Dutch and
Flemish paintings.
EXHIBITION TIP: Herkules 300 – Wiedergeburt eines Helden
(Hercules 300 – A hero reborn), April 7–October 8, 2017
INFO & RESERVATIONS:
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe
Tel. +49 (0)561-31680-0 | [email protected]
www.museum-kassel.de
www.musik-martinskirche.de/Orgel/Die-Einweihung
Program of related events
A wide-ranging program of related events will be offered
throughout the city during documenta 14.
More information will be available from mid-2017 at
www.kasselkultur2017.de
Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue, photo: D. Koilalous
Organ concerts at the Martinskirche
The inauguration of the new organ on June 4, 2017 will
be followed by an international festival that runs until
August 27, 2017. Timed to coincide with the 500-year
anni­­versary ce­­lebrations commemorating the 1517 Reformation and documenta 14, the organ’s inauguration will
take place during an important period in Kassel.
Direct flights between Kassel and Athens
Aegean Airlines will be providing direct flights between
Athens and Kassel from April to June 2017. Booking and
information on: www.aegeanair.com