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Documenta XMnica Amor aa PhD in art history , City University of New York ,Published online: 19 Jun 2008.

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Reviews

documenta XReclaiming the Political Projectof the Avant-garde

Mnica Amor

Much has been said about the spectacularisationof the arts and their smooth convergence withthe culture industry. Indeed, the marketingstrategies that they share and their claim tocomprehensiveness, accessibility and variety aresome of the factors that have been arguedagainst the structure of the mega-show. It is inopposition to the latter that documenta Xposited itself. Thus, more than a survey ofcontemporary art, which usually entails asthe Venice Biennale and its loose 'Past, Presentand Future' exhibition demonstrated (and as somany Whitney Biennials reconfirm) apersonal rearrangement of (mostly) New Yorklegitimised artists, documenta discursivelyconstituted itself as a 'cultural event' imbuedwith the political aspirations that characterisedpostwar neo-avantgarde practices. Indeed,Sixties' art became a focal point in the exhibition.It was paradigmatically present in the threebuildings that housed most of the work (alsoscattered along the Parcours that linked thebuildings). Thus the old station, Kulturbahnhof,housed the work of Brazilian artist Hlio Oiticicawhose investigations into the perception of formand colour led him to create participative objectsthat on the basis of a ludic and festive dimensionresulted in a practice of political and socialimplications. His Bolides, boxes of differentcolours filled with various elements meant forthe spectator to manipulate, and his Parangols,capes which the spectator could wear or 'hoist',looked like nostalgic objects emblematic of an

impossible social practice within a culture ofdisplay. Next to the gallery where Oiticica'swork was exhibited, Matthew Ngui fromSingapore set up an experimental project thatexamined daily practices like cooking or sittingon a chair. The juxtaposition between the twoartists was clear in their commitment to dailylife, but, as in the case of Oiticica's objects, Ngui'svestiges of his performance looked a bit banal.The second floor of the station presented thework of Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto.His pieces were scattered throughout the roomenticing one to move among them. Their workedsurfaces and their use of varied forms and

. materials prompted a careful and singularexamination foreign to the performative dimen-sion into which they were originally inscribed.

The work of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, alsoone of the key Sixties' figures in documenta X,was presented in the Ottoneum, originally atheatre built in 1605. With the help of photo-graphs, quoted text, and a video, the spectatorcould envision the participatory practice ofClark, one predicated on bodily interactionswith materials, and with the world and theother, through devices like masks with mirrors.In the Museum Fridericianum, the main exhibi-tion space, one could encounter the work of thestrongest paradigms of the show. GerhardRichter's Atlas, (1962-1996), Marcel Broodthaers'Section publicit, Muse d'Art Moderne, Dpart-ement des Aigles (1972), Hans Haacke's Shapolskyet al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real-TimeSocial System as of May 1, 1971 (1971), andGordon Matta-Clark's Reality Properties-TakeEstates: Block 3398, Lot 116 (1973) and WindowBlow Out (1976). Other artists' projects comple-mented this interdisciplinary critical approachtowards socioeconomic and cultural structuresmostly through the use of photographic imageswith a strong documentary quality and theexploration of the urban environment throughcollage techniques: Archizoom Associati, Archi-gram (Ron Herron), Aldo van Eyck and the

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more ludic and object-oriented, though no lesspolitical, work of Oyvind Fahlstrm.

The work of the late Sixties and early Seventiesallowed Catherine David, rtistic director ofdocumenta X, to create a sort of genealogy ofwhat she considers to be progressive contem-porary artistic practices. Juxtapositions aboundthroughout the show trying to make conceptualand structural relations between earlier projectsand the most recent work, and among thecontemporary pieces. Thus one could readStephen Craig's ambiguous architectonic maqu-ettes, part environmental models, part sculpt-ures, vis--vis Lois Weinberger's artistic habitatand the rather pretentious interventions by LiamGillick, whose colourful Plexiglass panels,inserted in the exhibition space, claim functionsof socialisation in their interaction with thespectator hard to grasp, at least in this particularinstallation.

Lygia Clark, Objeto sensorial,O eu o Tu: srie roupa-corpo-roupa, 1967,Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro

Hlio Oiticica, Parangols and Bolides, Collection ProjetoHlio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Werner Maschmann

Another crucial matrix of the show seemed tobe a commitment to photographic practices. Aphotographic 'parcours' initiated by document-ary photographer Ed van der Eisken was follow-ed by the more destabilising (of the docu-mentary tradition) photographic works ofWalker Evans and Helen Levitt and the NewDocuments photographer Garry Winogrand.Robert Adams' work followed on the heels of thelatter with numerous images that almostconstituted an incomprehensible mini-retro-spective that did not contribute much to theshow. It is this tradition of the document,associated with its denunciatory role, its archivaldimension, and the portrayal of the real, that istaken up by artists like Hans Haacke on the onehand and Gerhard Richter on the other. Thelatter set apart for his problematisation of thephotographic image: its association with thereal, and its possibility of reconstructing hist-orical memory.

The documentary tradition and its anthropo-logical implications as record and index of the

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real, found two different manifestations in thework of Lothar Baumgarten. On this occasion,Baumgarten exhibited two pieces in theKulturbahnhof: Manipulierte Realitt, 1968,1969,1970/1971, 1972 and Vakuum, 1978, 1979, 1980.The first consisted of a series of colourphotographs which were carefully organised ona large illuminated table located in the centre ofthe room. The images were the result of minimalinterventions that altered the conventionalarchival function of the photograph. Theyjuxtaposed bugs with plastic toys, confusedsnakes with fallen branches, and alteredinsignificant natural corners of the Amazon tocreate desublimatory spaces and an array ofunexpected images that pointed to the impossi-bility of portraying, through the camera, areality that remains fictional. It is to the inherentmanipulation of the real by the dynamics of thephotographic that these images attest. Therelevance of this gesture has to do with the factthat Baumgarten produced a crucial number ofthese pieces on several trips to the Venezuelanjungle in which he spent over a year with theYanomami Indians. Thus, Manipulierte Realitt

Gerhard Richter, Atlas, Stdtische Galerie imLenbachhaus, Mnchen, 1989. Photo: Werner Maschmann

can be read as a critical and poetical gestureagainst the anthropological gaze that constructsthe other as object of study. This gesture iscontradicted by Vakuum, an installation of blackand white photographs scattered on the wall,that tried to undermine the seriality of theanthropological archive but falls into the trap ofthe unquestioned photographic apparatus.These images portray the Yanomami in theirdaily activities, and documenta presents them aswitnesses to "Baumgarten's familiarity with theIndians and to his manner of sharing theireveryday experience".1 The transparency of theapparatus is umproblematically assumed, andthe position of the artist as shaper of meaning isnot acknowledged as a situation of power.

Two important approaches towards the realemerge from Baumgarten's artistic practice. Thefirst implies a poetics that points to the limits ofrepresentation and demands made upon it byrationalist discourses; a poetics that also tends toquestion the structures of enunciation and tounderline the contingency of representationalstrategies. The second tends to assume thesubject's access to the real, through artisticpractices (i.e. documentary photography) whichbecome problematic as soon as we consider theirstructures of production, circulation andreception. Because its strong connection with thereality effect produced by the documentaryimage, this tendency which may encompasspainting, drawing, text and often a sort ofnarrative, is understood as politically com-mitted. That this is one of documenta's em-phases is clearly understood given the greatnumber of artists who use the documentarytradition, sometimes claiming a subjective (int-imate) approach that is as problematic as anobjective one: Marc Pataut, Feng Mengbo,Collective (La Ciutat de la Gent), David Reeb,and Oladl Ajiboy Bamgboy being some ofthe most evident examples.

That a certain politics is at the core ofdocumenta's project, is also evident by thepublication of the authoritative documenta. TheBook, the key to understanding David's aspirat-ions. The book bears on its cover the title'Politics' upon which is imposed (between the '1'and the 'i') a capital 'E' that allows one to read'Poetics'. The book claims on its back cover to"indicate a political context for the interpretationof artistic activities at the close of the twentieth

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century, through a montage of images anddocuments from the immediate postwar periodto the present." It focuses on texts by philos-ophers, writers and cultural critics who addresshistorical events and social, political andcultural issues that involve war, urban space,(national) identity and its crisis, (Post- and Neo)colonialism and globalisation. A long interviewin two parts, entitled 'The Political Potential ofArt', is the only text that addresses postwarartistic practices. It took place among culturalcritic Jean-Franois Chevrier, art historianBenjamin Buchloh and Catherine David. Theinterview is an illuminating document about thesituation of artists and intellectuals in a post-industrial era which requires an analysis beyondthe scope of this article. It is important tounderline though that David's interest in ThirdWorld countries, peripheral cultures, and thecultural implications of globilisation notwith-standing, the discussion focuses almost exclus-ively on Franco-German cultural issues and the

ambiguous relationship, marked by fascinationand criticality, of those countries towardsAmerican culture.

While one of the assets of this documenta is apartial expansion of the Sixties' canon with theincorporation of artists like Lygia Clark andHlio Oiticica, the participation of some contem-porary Third World artists can be read simplis-tically in the context of documenta. Indeed,while David has avoided the trendiness of'multiculturalism' so dear to the United States,some of her non-Euroamerican selectionsoccupy a contradictory position in the show. Acase in point is the work of Nigerian artistOladl Ajiboy Bamgboy whose videos,which participate in an amateur aesthetic, claimto "destroy antiquated views of Africa (and tochallenge) those seen in the mass media, astrategy that I believe necessary for thenormalising of African representation". AjiboyBamgboy videos that seek to restore a truthful(normalising) representation through a visual

Stephen Craig, Tremen Str. Pavilion, 1996-1997,model in wood (scale 1 : 2), video projection, collection of the artist, Hamburg

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Lois Weinberger, Brennen und Gehen, 1993,Photo: Werner Maschmann

extension of his authentic gaze, are encounteredjust before Richter's Atlas which articulates "amultiplicity of gazes"2 that make it impossible torestore historical memory and national identitythrough the (always anchored by the institution)structure of the archive. A similar paternalisticattitude can be read into the inclusion of AfricanAmerican artist Kerry James Marshall. He is oneof the very few painters in documenta workingwithin a pictorial figurative tradition which,David suggests in the book interview, isexhausted today. While Marshall's paintings ofAfro-American stories may be conceptually andformally meaningful, they can only be read aspolitical content in an exhibition that privilegesthe machine-made image.

The. Latin American participation wassignalled by the Brazilian presence, a scene withwhich David has been involved for a long time,and which included the performative pieces ofTunga and Cbelo. One wonders though why aBrazilian artist, as poetically and politicallycommitted as Cildo Meireles is not indocumenta X. Apart from that, it is the MexicanGabriel Orozco, a sort of unavoidable presence

in large surveys of contemporary art and onmagazine covers, who participates in the showwith a rather uninteresting piece. Artists fromIsrael like Sigalit Landau, who explores thecontradictory nature of spaces, and Uri Tzaig,who recreates filmed sports events to generateunexpected juxtapositions and meanings, occ-upy a prominent position in the show.

Other artists further problematising thephotographic image, a gesture signaled byRichter's complex and disconcerting Atlas,imbued their work with a poetics that had littleto do with content, and more with the structuresof meaning and representation. In this sensethey generated a politics that undermined theconventionality of image production. DerSandmann, a video projection by Canadian artistStan Douglas, disrupts the unified field of visionso dear to the seamless photographic image andundermines the smooth linearity of the narrativeby manipulating sound and image in a storyabout repressed memories. British artist SteveMcQueen is also committed to an experimentalpractice which undermines the codes in whichthe filmed image is inscribed, thus exploringnew relations that may force us to rethink ourperceptions of the other and what their bodilygestures mean. Milk, 1984, a piece by Jeff Walllocated in the underground walkways that linkthe Kulturbahnhof to the pedestrian zone, both

Keny James Marshall, Many Mansions, 1994,aaylic and collage on canvas, 290 x 343 cm,Collection of the Art Institute Chicago

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Stan Douglas, Der Sandmann, 1995 dual black and white16 mm film projection with stereo sound,Sammlung Hauser & Wirth, Zrich

part of the Parcours, is a theatrical image incolour, mounted on a light box, of a homelessman trapped within a typical advertising device,engendering urban connotations of under-ground activities and peoples. Another work, avideo by Austrian Peter Friedl, also addressedthe potential violence of the urban site through atrivial yet powerful image of a man hitting acigar machine and then being kicked by a man inhis butt. Less successful projects that tried todialogue with urban space included SuzanneLaffont's and Jean-Luc Moulne's poster-likephotographs that employ an advertising aesthe-tic not sufficiently undermined.

If one had to define documenta X's mainachievement, it would be its interdisciplinarity.Apart from its commitment to practices thatwork in the expanded field of culture, theexhibition tried to engage the city. It sponsoredthe realisation of seven films and invited theatrepeople to create pieces inspired by documenta. Itdeveloped an ambitious lecture programme,'100 days-100 guests' (another asset of the show)that allowed David to expand the Euroamericanclassical canon of documenta. Finally it made acommitment to new technologies and the Inter-net. This all reflected the aspiration to make itmore a 'cultural event' than an exhibition. Andone has to acknowledge that the show partially

succeeded. The strategy allowed the spectator toexperience the exhibition on different levels andit forced him/her to think through the con-nections between the various layers whichconstituted the conceptual and formal 'parcours'.This prompts me to relate documenta X to thealliances of art to Cultural Studies, which notonly takes culture as its object of study but triesto redefine it, to broaden its scope. One must nothowever take any meaning of culture forgranted but rather try to survey the discursivestructure into which the term is inscribed. Whiledocumenta manifests an interest in differentartistic practices and their political dimension, itcannot bypass completely, as David sometimesclaims, a certain spectacularisation inherent tothe institutional site within which the event isinscribed (the latter loomed over some projectsthat utilised new technologies to claim a partici-patory dimension posited unproblematically).Moreover, a Cultural Studies approach tends,particularly under the umbrella of globalisationand the structure of the text, to homogeniseartistic practices and to dismiss the subver-siveness of form and/or the materiality of theobject; a risk that the best work takes withoutlosses.

If at times the historical look at the post-warconceptual neo-avantgarde and the emphasis onpolitical signifiers seemed to coincide with somekind of nostalgia for the radicality of past times(something that impels one to remember that the"site of political transformation" is not alwaysthe "site of artistic transformation"3) documentaX at times also captured not only the explicitlypolitical but also the poetical dimension onwhich the different cultural imaginaries invokedare grounded.

1 All non-numbered quotes are taken from PaulSztulman et al, Short Guide/Kurzfhrer, documenta undMuseum Fridericianum Veranstaltungs, 1997.

2 Gayatri Spivak, lecture at documenta's '100 days-100guests', July 23 1997.

3 Hal Foster, The Return of the Real, MIT Press,Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, 1996, p 173.

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