Documenta

documenta X
21 Juni - 28 September 1997
Kassel

In 1997, Catherine David was the first women to be appointed artistic director of a documenta – the last before our transition to the new millennium. This led David to use as a central motif the idea of “looking back into the future”. She presented a critical review of the past fifty years, and simultaneously a prognosis of the future for which David saw no traditional precedent on how we should proceed. To describe her approach , the artistic director coined the term “retroperspective”, which also was used in her exhibition design. David's mission was to place dX in relation to its predecessors, but also in the “tradition of innovation” that was the starting point of every documenta. A further theoretical concept underlying dX was the consideration that aesthetic production should also incorporate its political environment in the broadest sense of the word. David wanted to enable people to “recognize the state of the world” in varying ways, a desire which prompted her to define dX as a “manifestation culturelle.” Certain key political dates for wide-reaching social and cultural upheavals, such as 1945, 1968 or 1976/77, became chronological markers, along which art's political, social, cultural and aesthetic exploratory functions were traced.

With this concept in mind, David devoted most attention to those critical artistic positions that evolved at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. For instance, in an explicit reference to documenta 5, Marcel Broodthaers' “Section Publicité, Musée d'Art Moderne, Départment des Aigles” was shown again, which had already been on show in Kassel in 1972. Additional large-scale work complexes by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Brazilian artists Helio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck or the “Atlas” by Gerhard Richter were produced around that time or were begun during this period. In addition to historical works, lines of development were traced into the present-day.

It was likewise part of David's concept to expand the exhibition's traditional spectrum, and go beyond the mere presentation and displaying of works of art. Accordingly, the discussion forum „100 days – 100 guests“ became an integral part of dX. It afforded a platform for presentations and discussions by artists, scholars, scientists, authors and architects on questions pertaining to art and society – ranging from topics such as the efficacy of cultural policies uder the conditions of a world market to questions on the foundations of democracy. Speakers invited included the artistic director of the coming documenta, Okwui Enwezor.

Artistic Director:
Catherine David

Artists:
Vito Acconci
Robert Adams
Chantal Akerman
Pawel Althammer
Art & Language
Joachim Blank
Marcel Broodthaers
Chris Burden
Charles Burnett
Jean-Marc Bustamante
Mark Catteau
Stephen Craig
Richard Dindo
Stan Douglas
Marcel Duchamp
Ed van der Elsken
Walker Evans
Haroun Farocki
Fischli/Weiss
Dan Friedman
Jean Luc Godard
Dan Graham
Jordon Grandall
Ulrike Gosshart
Hans Haacke
Raymond Hains
Nigel Henderson
J�rg Herold
Christine Hill
Susan Hiller
Thomas Hirschhorn
Carsten H�ller
Christine & Irene Hohenb�chler
Felix S. Huber
Internationale Stadt Berlin
Karl-Heinz Jeron
Jon Jost
On Kawara
Mike Kelley
William Kendridge
Martin Kippenberger
William Klein
Rem Koolhas
Suzanne Lafont
Maria Lassnig
Antonia Lerch
Helen Levitt
Daniel Libeskind
Brice Marden
Chris Marker
Gordon Matta-Clark
Yana Milev
Reinhard Mucha
Christian Philipp M�ller
Bruce Nauman
Olav Nicolai
Carsten Nicolai
Helio Oiticica
Gabriel Orozco
Tony Oursler
Blinky Palermo
Raoul Peck
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Larrie Pittman
Philip Pocock
Gerhard Richter
Adberrahmane Sissako
Thomas Sch�tte
Alison & Peter Smithson
Robert Smithson
Aleksndr Sokurov
Nancy Spero
Erik Steinbrecher
Jean-Marie Straub
Rosemarie Trockel
Ben Vautier
Martin Walde
Jeff Wall
Harry Walter
Lois Weinberger
Garry Winogrand
Andrea Zittel
Heimo Zobernig