KASSEL (dpa) – The astonishment that a key art exhibition could regularly be staged in such a nondescript German town is as much a part of the documenta art show as the exhibits themselves.
Once every five years (from June 8 to September 15 this year) and for 100 days Kassel, a city described by its own mayor as “provincial”, becomes the centre of the contemporary art world.
“Kassel is the ugliest city west of Siberia,” American art writer Benjamin H. D. Buchloh once opined, shaking his head after a visit to the show.
Even Catherine David, artistic director of the last documenta five years ago, was moved to comment in an interview that the town, known largely for its armaments factories, lacked any kind of intellectual tradition.
The documenta represented a lucky break for Kassel, a town badly bombed in World War II which suddenly found itself on the periphery of Germany following the postwar division of the country into democratic and communist armed camps.
When art professor Arnold Bode inaugurated the first art show here in 1955 – at the time just a sideshow to a national garden festival – the town has just lost an ambitious bid to become the federal capital and was on the verge of drifting into complete obscurity. The documenta saved Kassel.
From time to time there were proposals about moving the show to a place with more panache but Kassel councillors always managed to stop that from happening.
For quite apart from the kudos for Kassel of staging a cutting- edge art show, the documenta is a cash cow that pulls in hundreds of thousands of visitors.
At the documenta before last in 1992 art lovers brought the equivalent of 25.6 million euros (28.1 million dollars) at today’s prices, according to figures from economic scientist Gerd-Michael Hellstern.
The cash tills are set to ring merrily during the documenta 11 and for the period around the opening date (June 8) hotel rooms in the place have been booked out for weeks.
Nevertheless, the documenta makers this year are not enjoying ideal conditions.
“The financial infrastructure is diametrically opposed to the importance of the exhibition,” lamented managing director Bernd Leifeld. For five years he has had a budget of 13 million euros. Less than half comes from public coffers, the documenta has to earn the rest.
The town with debts of more than 400 million euros has just 460,000 euros a year left over for the documenta. “Yet these are not subsidies but investments,” said Leifeld pointing to the local craftsmen, printers and other tradesmen who profit from the visitors.
Because public money is so scarce “our artistic director Okwui Enwezor only earns as much as the department head at the local savings bank,” said the documenta director.
Artists who come to Kassel to see their work being admired are given free board and lodging but get no fee. The organisation team resides in offices hastily adapted for the occasion while a local gymnasium was converted as a home for technicians and press representatives.
Leifeld is particularly peeved by the “zero budget” for marketing. He points out that without the help of private sponsors the documenta wouldn’t be able to do any advertizing for itself at all. “In this respect we haven’t entered the 21st century.”
