Between the majestic Kassel Kongress Palais Stadthalle and two charming little classical-style buildings that once housed Joseph Beuys’s University of the Trees, there is an inconspicuous tram-stop advertisement for documenta fifteen. Under a photograph of ruruHouse (the “living room” of the exhibition) is written “Kunst gehört nicht nur an die Wand. Sondern in die Mitte der Gesellschaft” (Art doesn’t only belong on the wall. But in the middle of society). As advertised, the latest instalment of the most important international exhibition of contemporary art has flung an artistic community of communities into the middle of contemporary German society. How do they fare?
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Artists: Hito Steyerl, *foundationClass* collective, Agus Nur Amal PMTOH, Alice Yard, Amol K Patil, Another Roadmap Africa Cluster, Archives des luttes des femmes en Algérie, Arts Collaboratory, Asia Art Archive, Atis Rezistans, Ghetto Biennale, Baan Noorg Collaborative Arts and Culture, Black Quantum Futurism, BOLOHO, Britto Arts Trust, Cao Minghao & Chen Jianjun, Centre d’art Waza, Chang En-Man, Chimurenga, Cinema Caravan & Takashi Kuribayashi, Dan Perjovschi, El Warcha, Erick Beltrán, FAFSWAG, Fehras Publishing Practices, Fondation Festival sur le Niger, Graziela Kunsch, Gudskul, Hamja Ahsan, ikkibawiKrrr, INLAND, Instituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt, Jatiwangi art Factory, Jimmie Durham, A Stick in the Forest by the Side of the Road, Jumana Emil Abboud, Keleketla! Library, Kiri Dalena, Komîna Fîlm a Rojava (Rojava Film Commune), La Intermundial Holobiente, LE 18, MADEYOULOOK, Marwa Arsanios, Más Arte Más Acción, Nguyen Trinh Thi, Nhà Sàn Collective, Nino Bulling, OFF-Biennale Budapest, ook_reinaart vanhoe, Party Office B2B Fadescha, Pınar Öğrenci, Project Art Works, Richard Bell, Sada [Regroup], Safdar Ahmed, Saodat Ismailova, Sa Sa Art Projects, Serigrafistas queer, Siwa Plateforme, Sourabh Phadke, Subversive Film, Taring Padi, The Black Archives, The Question of Funding, The Nest Collective, Trampoline House, Wajukuu Art Project, Wakaliga Uganda, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh, ZK/U – Center for Art and Urbanistics, Tania Bruguera, Anselm Kiefer
Special thanks to my mum, Karin Lettau, for the many valuable discussions when we visited documenta together and for correcting my German.
Paris Lettau is a contributing editor at Memo.
