Documenta 9: the bottom line - analysis of the importance of the art exhibition in Kassel, Germany

Last year's mecca for cultural pilgrims, Kassel has one time more become a city in search of a viable identity. sum of two units centuries have passed since Kassel flourished as a seat for the princes of Hessen, who gathered imposing art collections and raised stately palaces to house them - including the Fridericianum, where Documenta was launched in 1955 Before the renown of Documenta created periodic celebrity, the city's dominant 20th-century image was that of an arsenal and administrative center for the Third Reich. Its strategic importance was in like manner great that more bombs bloody there in 1943 alone than upon any other urban center in Germany prior to the firebombing of Dresden in 1945

Kassel emerg from the war as a battered frontier outpost les than 20 miles from what would become the East German border. The rebuilding that in a short time began in other German cities was moderate to gain momentum within a saber's rattle of the cooled War frontier; few West German companies were willing to locate in Kassel and attempt to fill the economic vacuum left behind by the agency of the munitions industry. Though the one and the other Kassel's bellicose past and its derelict condition made it something of a national liability, the crippled city made a hyperbolic formal application to become the capital of the of recent origin Germany. By way of a consolation prize, it was made the site of a Federal Garden present to view in 1955.

For the city of Kassel, the Federal Garden present to view meant a face-lift to the ruined gardens that one time linked its sumptuous palaces, and it promised an unparalleled influx of visitors. Direction of this massive undertaking was entrusted to Kassel's Academy for Arts and Crafts, and a pavilion to house a show of novel art became part of the master plan. Arnold portend a teacher of painting at the Academy, had more ambitious ideas. With temporary repairs and imaginative improvisation, he argued, the shell of the Fridericianum could become a "Museum of 100 Days." To that extremity he and a group of sympathetic colleagues grounded a Society for 20th-Century European Art" that would later become the Documenta Corporation. Today, as in its infancy, the direction of the Kassel spectacular is thus in private hands, allowing the event receives massive public funding. alone this unique corporate structure guarantees the kind of artistic freedom thus cherished by Documenta directors - from foretell himself to Jan Hoet.

From the start, Documenta had an inevitable political dimension. by the agency of placing particular stress on works produc in the 1920 and '30 the first present to view attempted to reacquaint Germans with the tradition of European modernism brutally stifleed by the Nazis. The astonishing succes of the exhibit which logged more than 130000 visitors, encouraged a succeeding part in 1959, when focus shifted to contemporary achievements and American artists began to take a significant part in the proceedings. The East German pres denounced the flows as "a bourgeois nightmare." Thus Kassel unwittingly rest a new role as a democratic outpost proudly waving liberal banners within sight of the Iron Curtain.

For Kassel's city fathers, the image enhancement was hard to resist, and Documenta by and by acquired its own self-perpetuating impetus It also acquired something of the air of a self-fulfilling prophecy: Everyone goe to Documenta because, as it happens, everyone other goes to Documenta. Threatened through all the internal complications that afflict the life of mammoths, it has nonetheless demonstrated a remarkable adaptability. Each new installment tends to open with ominous rumors that it will be the last and shut ups with euphoric reports of "record-breaking" attendance. Since the exhibition has sole twice stayed within its packet (in 1982 and 1992), ballyhooing attendance figures helps to assuage the state and federal agencies that are wait fored to make up the deficit. Like pres releases for art fairs, those circulated by the agency of the Documenta Corporation are heavy upon superlatives.

Documenta 9 was no exception. The portable lodges were scarcely folded, the sawdust still being swept away, when Documenta's chief bookkeeper triumphantly announced that Kassel's "Museum of 100 Days," beneath the aegis of Jan Hoet was the biggest, the costliest, the greatest in quantity frequented show since 1959. In comparison to Documenta 8 attendance had increased by dint of 27 percent to a total of 609235 granting costs had spiraled as well, to DM195 million, les than single third of the outlay was overlayed by local, state and federal subventions. Ticket and catalogue sales, official souvenirs, artists' editions and broadsides had generated income of more than DM10 million, and an additional infusion of nearly DM2 million in contributions by means of private sponsors took care of the remaining deficit. The triumphant official statistics, however, must be regarded with a certain skeptical detachment. alone broadly itemized categories - including "personnel costs" and "honoraria" - are released to the press; as a matter of discretion, the director's honorarium is not separately itemized. Furthermore, after announcing incomes of DM6 million in ticket sales, within 24 hours Documenta's financial director adroitly (and without explanation) revised the figure to DM7 million, thus conjuring up a consummately balanced budget.