documenta 12 ::: fridericianum level 01

© Photo Julia Zimmermann | documenta GmbH

As mentioned yesterday I'll start my covering of this year's documenta with introducing my favourite artists/presentations. Kate has her very own interpretation of documenta 12 which she is really crazy about. Concering her documenta has to be seen as a whole consisting of many tiny elements, which means that the artists themselves aren't THAT important for the exhibition's meaning. She has some very interessting arguments which she plans to put together in a huge article which has to be published (I'll tell you as soon it has happend). Well actually she seems to truely understand Roger Burgel's Leitmotifs which I refused to, but well I somehow did understand them, but am still not convinced that the exhibition is a good one, although the "motifs" were the right ones...

Well here you'll find the floorplan of the Fridericianum, where you'll be able to locate the following artists:

John McCracken | Swift

© Courtesy John Mc Cracken, David Zwirner, New York, Hauser & Wirth Collection, Switzerland Photo: Ines Agostinelli

The work by the 1934 born McCracken is located at the Fridericianum's entrance hall. Unfortunately I came in via a backdoor (well sometimes I like it to sneek in unnoticed or simply without lining up) so I missed the experience of waiting and then entering this shiny, reflecting hall. I took my photo when I left and posted it yesterday. The photo here - taken from the press CD - also shows the monolith in the middle of the hall. 1966 McCracken wrote about his works:

“My tendency is to reduce everything to single things: Things which refer to nothing outside themselves, but which at the same time refer, or relate, to everything. I find that I can’t examine my sculptures from a dualistic point of view which sees everything in terms of opposites (life – death, right – wrong, natural – unnatural), because this produces what seem to be paradoxes.”

Well sounds very minimalistic, huh?

Harun Farocki | Deep Play

© Courtesy the artist / Greene Naftali Gallery, New York Photos: Julia Zimmermann / documenta GmbH

Guess this was the room a lot of male visitors liked the most. At least SOMETHING to refer to. I don't know why I was so fascinated about this room, well it probably reminded me of last summer's worldcup here in Germany, or I simply liked the idea of searching for a higher "spirit" behind common things, like football for example.

"One-and-a-half billion people saw exactly the same images of the World Cup final in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium last year. Harun Farocki interprets this phenomenon – the monopolisation of live pictures – as the television industry’s staging of the world. On twelve monitors in the rotunda of the Museum Fridericianum, his video installation Deep Play presents original material from the television broadcasting companies alongside digitally processed images that simulate the mathematical analysis of the game. There is no commentary, only the unfiltered voices of sports commentators, police and TV stage-direction which expose the process of perfection to which the telecast is subjected." (pressrelease)

Peter Friedl | Tiger oder Löwe

© Peter Friedl; photo Hans Nevidal / documenta GmbH

I loved the tiger and the snake (which isn't real). They both reminded me of my playing dog. Well art? Yes, there's something in here! The video is an comical homage to a Delacroix painting (Tiger and Snake, 1862), hanging in the Hamburger Kunsthalle.

Credit: corcoran.org

"When invited to a group exhibition, Friedl once brought a real tiger and a stuffed snake into the Olympiasaal, the room in which the historical point of reference hangs. Like Friedl, Delacroix was also interested in contemporary theatre, Shakespearean dramas for example. In Delacroix’s painting, the tiger threatens the snake in the wilderness. Friedl’s video is an ironic challenge to the pathos in Delacroix’s painting, and serves to put 'the institutional expectations on another level'."(pressrelease)

I guess this video is one of the few pieces Roger Buergel installed for enjoyment!? Alright, I enjoyed it!

Trisha Brown | Drawings

© Trisha Brown; photo Egbert Trogemann / documenta GmbH © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2007

Not the most spectaculas work of the New York based artist/dancer/choreographer (I'll come to that one later), but well I very poetic little arrangement of very nice and inspiring drawings.

"Drawings have accompanied Brown for a long time. They remain a private expression. At the beginning, they were a documentation of what she did in her choreographies. Then the hand and floor drawings took on a life of their own. Today she also sees ideas in the drawings that flow into the dance process. Quick drawings move, and movement is drawing in the air." (pressrelease)