Bernd Leifeld, who has served as the director of the Documenta art festival since 1996, has announced that he will step down from his post, having organized four successful editions of the event during his tenure. “I am leaving with two weeping eyes,” Leifeld said in an interview with the German Press Agency. “But I wanted to decide for myself when I leave.” (more…)
Adam Szymczyk, the Chief Curator and Director at Kunsthalle Basel has been named as lead Curator for documenta 14, set to take place in Kassel from June 10th, to September 17th, 2017. “I am convinced that Szymczyk, a ground-breaking and idiosyncratic curator of art, will add new highlights to documenta,” says Minister of State Eva Kühne-Hörmann. (more…)
Tacita Dean, Fatigues (F) (2012), via Marian Goodman Gallery
Marian Goodman Gallery is currently hosting the first showing of Tacita Dean’s, Fatigues, a recent series of drawings initially exhibited in Kassel at this past summer’s documenta (13).
Tacita Dean, Fatigues (Installation view), via Marian Goodman Gallery
Francis Alÿs, REEL-UNREEL (2011), via David Zwirner
In REEL-UNREEL, the recently completed film by Belgian artist Francis Alÿs, two Afghan boys race through the streets of Kabul, dodging traffic, pedestrians, and other children while military helicopters fly overhead. Mimicking a game hoop-rolling, they push two large film canisters, a trail of film spilling out behind them as they go. Winding through the streets and up into the hills of the Afghani capital, the reels of film take their fair share of abuse as they are dragged through dirt, puddles, and even a small fire before being mistakenly rolled straight off a cliff. (more…)
Fridericianum in Kassel via dOCUMENTA
Every five years, the city of Kassel in Germany plays host to dOCUMENTA, a colossal, 100-day long exhibition of contemporary art from all over the world. Participating artists are provided at least two years to complete their work and the results are thus consistently thorough and complex. This year is dOCUMENTA’s thirteenth edition and is expected to attract more than 750,000 visitors, nearly twice that of last year’s Venice Biennale.
Yan Lei‘s “Limited Art Project”, a room of works completed daily over the past year. The room and the art hung on its walls will be sprayed over with car paint, retransforming every piece into a blank canvas. This image is featured on BBC News’ Big Picture series.
