The trouble with
Documenta is the best things were completely impossible for me to share in any way but words. Totally experiential. This is art you have to be there to be in not just see.
1
Janet Cardiff and George Miller
Their video walk in the old Hauptbanhopf (pictured above) was so good I could barely speak afterwards. You are given an iPod touch and some damn good headphones in exchange for your passport. The piece is a video work which takes you around a functioning railway station - you're looking at the screen and comparing it where you are the whole time. Layers of sound, history, meaning, experience and amazing dance elements thrown in and the horrifying realisation you are standing on the platform where Jews were transported to concentration camps. Art does not get better than this. (Equally as amazing was sitting on tree stumps in the woods listening to their environmental audio installation 'for a thousand years' where war seems to take place around ever physical corner.)
2
Pierre Huyghe's Untitled
Totally unique. You stumble into a swamp in the middle of an art filled garden. There are piles of concrete bricks around. Some plants amongst them - which smell and look like weed...Around the corner beyond some muddy ditches, a small brown puppy and an older dog with one pink leg are basking in the sun playing with whoever comes by. In the centre of the space is a place you can't reach surrounded by muddy hills. In the centre is a reclining nude sculpture with a swarm of live bees on its head. And that's it. The plants turned out to be psychoactive. The result was one of the strangest, most memorable, weird takes on the cycle of life I have ever seen. Can't get the thing out of my head.
3
Tino Sehgal
So good I had to go twice. You stumble into a complete black shed. You cannot see a thing. There are human voices around but you can't work out if they are live or recorded. You are literally frozen unaware how close people are. After about five minutes I realised they were real then left. Hours later someone says to me - did you see the dancing?? I went back the next day - after about 15 minutes your eyes finally adjust to the blackness and you can see! People are doing this strange voice and jagged dance routine. It was insane and pushed all the boundaries of your senses.
4
Haris Epaminonda
A whole house turned into an architectural installation filled with her neo-classicist framed found images, atmospheric film works and a dose of architecture. I wanted to move in.
5
Shinro Ohtake: MON CHERI: A Self Portrait
A 3D collage work. Boast went all the way up to the top of the tree next door - like the Japanese earthquake in art form. The building was amazing - filled with paper collage, video pieces, kinetic instruments. And the letter F. (below)
6
Sanja Ivekovic's The Disobediant installation
Inspired by a vile image of a nazi illustrating the relationship between Jews and lazy asses, Ivekovic reinvents the idea of the ass as a symbol for political dissonance and rebellion. Fascinating in particular was the biographical texts of the these rebels to accompany the room (below)
7
Rabih Moure
Lebanese artist with an inspired depiction of war included flip books of film clips of gunfire and some really interesting stills and video pieces about the relationship between cellphones and war (below)
8
Masood Kamandy
Artist working with photography and computer programmer who set up courses to teach people art skills in Kabul's University. A collaborative and political project with beautiful results. (below)
9
Wael Shawky 'Cabaret Crusades:The Horror Show File'
A puppet show version of middle Eastern moments in history. Wish I had had time to watch it all. (still below) but there's a great feature in Kaleidoscope about the artist
10
Erkki Kurenniermi
Apart from his experimental musical devices, a wall of TVs showing his collected lifelong archive of images, films, computer animations and god knows what else (below)
