pull the plug! some statistics for documenta 13
the last day i thought that if there was a power outing at the Kulturbahnhof, there would be maybe 5 out of the 26 exhibits still "working":
North Wing:
0) Epaminonda and Cramer - not much of a show
1) Michael Portnoy - too dark to see :)
2) Istvan Csakany - sufficient light from windows
3) Clemens von Wedemeyer - sorry, no show
4) Haegue Yang - show? or no show?
5) William Kentrigde - sorry, no show
6) Lara Favaretto - truly independent: the show is on!
7) Critical Art Ensemble - show!
8) Fabio Mauri - no show any more
9) Javier Tellez - no show!
Train Station:
10) Otolith group - sorry, no show
11) Albert Serra - sorry, no show
12) Cardiff and Miller - finally, this pulls the plug on the iphone cult
13) Susan Hiller - sorry, no music
14) Susan Philipsz - sorry, nothing to hear
South Wing:
15) Florian Hecker - need to chimerize yourself
16) Symrin Gill - hopefully enough light to see
17) Rabih Mroue - light out
18) Tejal Shah - sorry, no show
19) Jessica Warboys - was there something there?
20) Bani Abidi - sorry, not much left
21) Seth Price - darkness
22) Chiurai Kudzanai - enough light to see something
at the rear end:
23) Willie Doherty - sorry, no show
24) Christodoulos Panayotou - enough light
25) And And And - electricity is terribly capitalistic anyway
***
among the artists are 8 women, ie. 28%. i am not counting females in groups of which there are 3.
mr Kudzanai is the youngest with 31 years and mr Mauri the by far oldest with 86 years. everybody's average age is 43 years.
i do not know who feeds a claim like "most important international exhibition of contemporary art" into the pipeline and why so many seem to thankfully parrot it. while i do not feel myself to be in a position to question the "most important" part, i did look at the "international" part and found a nicely prepared statistic in the "Die Zeit" magazine, dated 06.06.2012. yes, indeed documenta has over time become more international if you look at the nationalities of the artists:
1992
60 North America (31%)
6 South America (3%)
116 Europe (59%)
1 Afrika (1%)
9 Asia (5%)
3 Oceania (2%)
(total 195)
2002
33 North America (29%)
6 South America (5%)
56 Europe (50%)
9 Afrika (8%)
8 Asia (7%)
1 Oceania (1%)
(total 113)
2007
16 North America (15%)
9 South America (8%)
47 Europe (44%)
10 Afrika (9%)
24 Asia (22%)
2 Oceania (2%)
(total 108)
i do not have data for 2012. if i take birth places instead (as given in the biographical data), the Kulturbahnhof at least confirms a continuing and very clear european dominance, 16 artists, followed by 5 from asia, 2 from africa and 1 from south america (not counting individuals when running as a group).
measuring "internationality" through citizenship, however, is biased as those who are invited almost inevitably have "western" education of some sort. i am pretty sure that today's art curators (when and why was this job title introduced?!) are entirely unaware of artists who are not orbiting the standard, "western" dominated, "international" art industry and that is why we see the kind of "internationality" we see.
anyway, the "we"s (=visitors) are predominantly german citizens:
1992 - 81,3%
2002 - 69,4%
2007 - 72%
(source: Gerd Michael Hellstern, in Ariane Vahle, 2009)
with kasseler "we"s accounting for 9,5% (1992) and 14% (2007). [whether this is out of total visitor numbers or out of german visitors the study does not say, so please read as approximation and tendency]
North Wing:
0) Epaminonda and Cramer - not much of a show
1) Michael Portnoy - too dark to see :)
2) Istvan Csakany - sufficient light from windows
3) Clemens von Wedemeyer - sorry, no show
4) Haegue Yang - show? or no show?
5) William Kentrigde - sorry, no show
6) Lara Favaretto - truly independent: the show is on!
7) Critical Art Ensemble - show!
8) Fabio Mauri - no show any more
9) Javier Tellez - no show!
Train Station:
10) Otolith group - sorry, no show
11) Albert Serra - sorry, no show
12) Cardiff and Miller - finally, this pulls the plug on the iphone cult
13) Susan Hiller - sorry, no music
14) Susan Philipsz - sorry, nothing to hear
South Wing:
15) Florian Hecker - need to chimerize yourself
16) Symrin Gill - hopefully enough light to see
17) Rabih Mroue - light out
18) Tejal Shah - sorry, no show
19) Jessica Warboys - was there something there?
20) Bani Abidi - sorry, not much left
21) Seth Price - darkness
22) Chiurai Kudzanai - enough light to see something
at the rear end:
23) Willie Doherty - sorry, no show
24) Christodoulos Panayotou - enough light
25) And And And - electricity is terribly capitalistic anyway
***
among the artists are 8 women, ie. 28%. i am not counting females in groups of which there are 3.
mr Kudzanai is the youngest with 31 years and mr Mauri the by far oldest with 86 years. everybody's average age is 43 years.
i do not know who feeds a claim like "most important international exhibition of contemporary art" into the pipeline and why so many seem to thankfully parrot it. while i do not feel myself to be in a position to question the "most important" part, i did look at the "international" part and found a nicely prepared statistic in the "Die Zeit" magazine, dated 06.06.2012. yes, indeed documenta has over time become more international if you look at the nationalities of the artists:
1992
60 North America (31%)
6 South America (3%)
116 Europe (59%)
1 Afrika (1%)
9 Asia (5%)
3 Oceania (2%)
(total 195)
2002
33 North America (29%)
6 South America (5%)
56 Europe (50%)
9 Afrika (8%)
8 Asia (7%)
1 Oceania (1%)
(total 113)
2007
16 North America (15%)
9 South America (8%)
47 Europe (44%)
10 Afrika (9%)
24 Asia (22%)
2 Oceania (2%)
(total 108)
i do not have data for 2012. if i take birth places instead (as given in the biographical data), the Kulturbahnhof at least confirms a continuing and very clear european dominance, 16 artists, followed by 5 from asia, 2 from africa and 1 from south america (not counting individuals when running as a group).
measuring "internationality" through citizenship, however, is biased as those who are invited almost inevitably have "western" education of some sort. i am pretty sure that today's art curators (when and why was this job title introduced?!) are entirely unaware of artists who are not orbiting the standard, "western" dominated, "international" art industry and that is why we see the kind of "internationality" we see.
anyway, the "we"s (=visitors) are predominantly german citizens:
1992 - 81,3%
2002 - 69,4%
2007 - 72%
(source: Gerd Michael Hellstern, in Ariane Vahle, 2009)
with kasseler "we"s accounting for 9,5% (1992) and 14% (2007). [whether this is out of total visitor numbers or out of german visitors the study does not say, so please read as approximation and tendency]
morino - 29. Jun, 13:08
Nanni Balestrini