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BLIND SPOT
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
ArtLeaks
Forensic Architecture
9 June – 21 July 2018
Free entry from Tuesday to Saturday, 2-6 PM
BLIND SPOT is a group exhibition bringing together three artists and collective groups that are engaged in issues of social justice, and whose activities have a real impact in resolving conflict; using advanced technological tools, developing inquiry and investigation methods that can refer to architecture or the exact sciences, they aspire to a future of fair redistributed social balances.
The BLIND SPOT exhibition is marked by documentary research, modelling sensitivities, and poetic positions in the field of social discourse, and by artists’ civic engagement within civil society in which aesthetics and politics are intimately linked.
The projects shown in the exhibition bear witness to today’s artists and artistic practices ability in enhancing aesthetic research in fields that go far beyond the field of exhibitions and contemporary art.
Moreover, the three artists and collectives presented in BLIND SPOT share a common goal in working for causes, or contributing to investigations (judicial, humanitarian…), which comes as no surprise given the importance that the porosity of these fields of expertise have played in recent art history.
By extension, these artists highlight the importance of aesthetic research as a field of expertise and representation to reveal blind spots that institutions, states or constituted groups seek to keep hidden. Form becomes a field of study and tension. By revealing leaks (ArtLeaks), by formalizing inaudible sounds (Lawrence Abu Hamdan), by modelling conflict zones (Forensic Architecture), these artists demonstrate that not only aesthetics and associated methodology can produce results from a careful examination of sensitive matter, but by penetrating the dimensional complexity of forms BLIND SPOT 09 June – 21 July 2018 Access Entrée libre From Tuesday to Saturday 14.00-18.00 and by appointment rue de la Rochette 69190 Saint-Fons FRANCE Public transport Tram T4 Lénine – Corsière Bus 60 Yves Farge Bus 93 La Rochette-Clochettes lecap-saintfons.com With the support of the gallery Mor Charpentier, Paris can allow us to fully comprehend what we would not understand through simple normative approaches, (application of exact sciences, politics, social sciences…) offering new options in addressing crisis situations.
Reading forms is not just a matter of dilettante pleasure, it can involve the challenge of interpretations and struggles at the heart of which, to paraphrase Jacques Rancière*, our sensory faculties and our inclination to the sensitive bear witness to our own political strength.
Nicolas Audureau, Curator of the exhibition
* Jacques Rancière, Le partage du sensible, esthétique et politique, Paris : La fabrique, 2000.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Saydnaya (ray traces), 2017. Courtesy : galerie mor charpentier et l’artiste
BLIND SPOT
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
ArtLeaks
Forensic Architecture
09.06 – 21.07.2018
Vernissage
Vendredi 8 JUIN
à 18h
Please scroll down for the english version
Blind Spot est une exposition collective regroupant trois artistes et collectifs engagés dans des questions de justice sociale, dont les activités ont un réel impact dans la résolution de conflits, utilisant des outils technologiques avancés, développant des méthodes d’enquête et d’investigation pouvant se référer à l’architecture ou aux sciences exactes, tous aspirant à un futur aux équilibres sociaux redistribués.
L’exposition Blind Spot a une esthétique marquée par des recherches documentaires, par des modélisations du sensible, par des positions poétiques dans le champs du discours social, et par l’implication citoyenne des artistes au sein de la société civile ; dans laquelle esthétique et politique sont intimement liés par le prisme de l’implication des artistes dans des situations de crise.
Nicolas Audureau, curateur.
English version
The exhibition Blind Spot is devoted to three artists or groups engaged in questions of social justice, whose work takes the form of a research or an investigation and appropriates advanced technologies as an instrument of counter-power. The aesthetics and politics in their work are closely bound up enriching each other in the Distribution of the Sensible as famously formulated by Jacques Rancière.
The aesthetic of the exhibition Blind Spot is influenced by documentary researches, by modeling sensitivity, by poetical positions in the field of social discourse, and by the involvement of artists as citizens within Civil society. Aesthetics and politics are closely connected through the real implication of artists into situations of crisis.
Nicolas Audureau, curator.
ArtLeaks Gazette #5 Open Call
End Our Collective Living Nightmare of the Übermensch — Calls to Fight the Legitimization of White Supremacists, Ableists, Sexists, Transphobes, Homophobes, and Capitalists in the Artworld and Beyond!
While 2017 has been celebrated as the year of women, queer and trans people, 2018 has witnessed the devastating rise and legitimization of a virulent right-wing backlash around the world. Championing the role of collective whistleblowers, movements like #MeToo, Time’s up, #NoDAPL, #TakeAKnee, and #BlackLivesMatter, have shifted debates about gender and racism out of the violently maintained shadows into international visibility, expanding and negotiating questions of civil courage, testimony, and solidarity. Formulating and testing strategies to fight against the culture of harassment, toxic masculinity, and racism ingrained in our societies, empowerment movements increasingly come up against right-wing conservatism and left-wing patriarchal models that perpetuate inequalities and violence pervasive within institutions, the private sphere, and beyond.
ArtLeaks Gazette #5 calls for contributions that analyze concrete practices and campaigns, and which engage theoretically and intersectionally with relevant issues related to queer, feminist, racial, and economic justice. As the aforementioned issues have been framed differently in various socio-economic and political contexts, we are looking for contributions that are able to put in conversation nationalist realities, colonial violences, orthodox regimes, and the crisis of identity politics, considering not only overall conditions in the artworld but also local specificities.
We welcome contributions in a variety of narrative forms, from articles, commentaries, and glossary entries, to posters and drawings. The deadline for entries is September 30, 2018. Contributions should be delivered in English, or as an exemption in other languages after negotiations with the editorial council. The editorial council of ArtLeaks takes responsibility for communicating with all authors during the editorial process.
Please contact us with any questions, comments, and submit materials to: artsleaks@gmail.com.
The on-line gazette will be published in English under the Creative Commons attribution noncommercial-share alike and its materials will be offered for translation in any languages to any interested parts.
Limited printed copies will be available. We encourage anyone who would like to support us to print smaller print runs of ALG#5. We will make several PDF formats of the ALG to meet various digital needs, as well as an epub edition. We encourage contributors to be an active part of spreading the ALG by hosting it on their site and forwarding it on to their networks.
For further information please check out previous issues of the ALGs
https://art-leaks.org/artleaks-gazette/
Editors: Corina L. Apostol, Vladan Jeremic, Jasmina Tumbas
A call for intergalactic solidarity actions everywhere to end the destruction of the ZAD
Oliver Ressler, Everything’s coming together while everything’s falling apart, film still, 2017
We are writing with the smell of tear gas rising from our fingers. The springtime symphony of birdsong is punctuated by the explosive echo of concussion grenades. Our eyes are watering, less from the gas than the sadness; because our friends’ homes, barns and organic farms are being destroyed. Bulldozers, supported by 2500 riot police, armored vehicles, helicopters and drones, are rampaging through these forests, pastures and wetlands to crush the future we are building here on the to the zad (The zone à defendre).
We are calling on you to take solidarity actions everywhere, it could be holding demos at your local french embassy or consulate, or taking actions against any suitable symbol (corporate or otherwise) of France ! And if you are not too far away, bring your disobedient bodies to join us on the zone. If the French government evicts the zad, it will be like evicting hope.
For fifty years, this unique chequerboard landscape was the site of a relentless struggle against yet another climate wrecking infrastructure, a new airport for the nearby city of Nantes. Farmers and villagers, activists and naturalists, squatters and trade unionists wove an unbreakable ecology of struggle together and three months ago on the 17th of January, the French government announced that the airport project would be abandoned. But this incredible victory, won through a diversity of creative tactics from petitions to direct action, legal challenges to sabotage, had a dark shadow. In the same breath that declared the abandonment, came the announcement that the people occupying these 4000 acres of liberated territory, the 300 of us living and farming in 80 different collectives, would be evicted because we dared not just to be against the airport, but its WORLD as well.
Since that victorious day, the battle has transformed itself and is now no longer about a destructive infrastructure project, but about sharing the territory we inhabit. We stopped this place from being covered in concrete and so it is up to us to take care of its future. The movement therefore maintains that we should have the right to manage the land as a commons (see its declaration The Six Points for the Zad because there will never be an Airport). Today this is the struggle of the zad (zone to defend) of Notre Dame Des Landes.
The zad was launched in 2009 after a letter (distributed during the first french climate camp here) written by locals inviting people to occupy the zone and squat the abandoned farmhouses. Now the zone has become one of Europe’s largest laboratory of commoning. With its bakeries, pirate radio station, tractor repair workshop, brewery, anarchitectural cabins, banqueting hall, medicinal herb gardens, a rap studio, dairy, vegetable plots, weekly newspaper, flour mill, library and even a surrealist lighthouse. It has become a concrete experiment in taking back control of everyday life.
In 2012 the French state’s attempt to evict the zone to build the airport was fiercely resisted, despite numerous demolitions 40,000 people turned up to rebuild and the government withdrew. The police have not set foot on the zad since, that is, until Monday morning, when at 3am the gendarmes pierced into the zone.
On day one they destroyed some of the most beautiful cabins and barns, but yesterday we stopped the cops from getting to the Vraies Rouge, which happens to be where one of our negotiators with the government lives. Destroying the house of those that agreed to sit at the table with you was a strategic mistake. The fabulous zad press team used this as the media hook and today we are winning the battle of the story. If enough people get to the zone over the next days we could win the battle on the territory as well. We need rebel everything, from cooks to medics, fighters to witnesses. We doubt this rural revolt will be finished before the weekend, when we are also calling people to come and rebuild en mass.
Already solidarity demonstrations have taken place in over 100 cities across France, whilst the town halls of several towns were occupied. Zapatistas demonstrated in Chiapas Mexico, there were actions in Brussels, Spain, Lebanon, London, Poland, Palestine and New York and the underground carpark of the french embassy in Munich was sabotaged. They will never be able to evict our solidarity.
Post your reports on twitter @zad_nddl #zad #nddl and to our solidarity action email soutienzad@riseup.net for more info in english see www.zadforever.blog and watch this video to see what is being destroyed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqrtUkBmv8s
The State of Artistic Freedom 2018 // FreeMuse
In a first-of-its-kind report assessing the global state of artistic freedom, Freemuse warns of the emergence of a new global culture of silencing others, where artistic expression is being shut down in every corner of the globe, including in the traditionally democratic West.
In 2017, 48 artists were serving combined sentences of more than 188 years in prison. Spain imprisoned 13 rappers – more musicians than any other country. On average, one artist per week in 2017 was prosecuted for expressing themselves. Egypt, Russia and Israel accounted for one-third of violations against LGBT artists and audiences. Seventy per cent of violations against women artists and audiences were on the grounds of indecency, a rationale used in 15 countries across Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. And artists from minority groups suffered violations of their artistic freedom in a near 50/50 split between countries in the global North and South.
The State of Artistic Freedom 2018 report documents and examines 553 cases of artistic freedom violations in 78 countries in the 2017 calendar year, combined with an analysis of legal, political and social developments that shed light on the motivations and rationales behind the violations.
Through this comprehensive analysis we have identified 10 countries that have exhibited alarming developments in how they treat artists and their freedom of artistic expression, and are ones to keep a watch on throughout 2018. These countries are: China, Cuba, India, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Venezuela and the US.
The report takes a further in-depth analysis of seven other countries, reviewing their laws, policies and practices that continue to sustain their troubling record of silencing freedom of artistic expressions, and take a closer look at emblematic cases that expose these continuing violations. These seven countries are: Bangladesh, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey.
Open Letter on the Resignation of Laura Raicovich from the Queens Museum (New York, US)
Laura Raicovich, as president and executive director of the Queens Museum, has galvanized the museum field: she has demonstrated how cultural institutions can responsibly and creatively embrace artistic as well as social and political matters crucial to their local constituencies while contributing to the field at large. We have been inspired by her work with art, artists, and communities relating to important cultural issues such as immigration, cultural diversity, education, and equity. The example she set will continue to inform our own work.
We are writing to affirm the leadership role of cultural institutions in advancing cultural and social as well as political public discourse. As stewards and advocates of contemporary and historical cultural expressions, we directors, curators, and staff members of cultural institutions, as well as the board members to whom we are accountable, have a particular obligation to facilitate the free and safe exchange of ideas about our contemporary world with art as the catalyst.
In times of political polarization, arts institutions must fully commit to our responsibility to act as empathetic forums in which we come to understand human history, creativity and society. Art institutions must respond to pressing issues facing our communities — this is not simply a right but an obligation, especially for those supported by public funds.
We call on the boards of our cultural institutions to embrace the civic role of our institutions by supporting and empowering courageous and caring leaders such as Laura Raicovich, regardless of their gender. This is more necessary now than at any other point since the civil rights era in the 1950s and 1960s.
Regine Basha
Chloë Bass, Social Practice Queens
Omar Berrada, Curator and Director, Dar al-Ma’mûn, Marrakech, Morocco
Rashida Bumbray, Open Society Foundations
Harry Burke, Artists Space
Johanna Burton
Gonzalo Casals, Executive Director, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art
Mary Ceruti, Executive Director and Chief Curator, SculptureCenter
Ken Chen, Executive Director, Asian American Writers’ Workshop
Galit Eilat
Anne Ellegood
Charles Esche, Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Deborah Fisher, Executive Director, A Blade of Grass
Lynn Gumpert, Director, Grey Art Gallery, New York University
Kemi Ilesanmi
Jamillah James, Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Carin Kuoni, Director/Chief Curator, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, The New School
Lucy Lippard
Lydia Matthews, Director, Parsons Curatorial Design Research Lab, The New School
Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator, MOCA, Los Angeles
Alyssa Nitchun
Amanda Parmer, Curator, Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Christiane Paul
Sheetal Prajapati, Director of Public Engagement, Pioneer Works
Laurel Ptak, Executive Director & Curator, Art in General
Silvia Rocciolo, Curator, The New School Art Collection
Jay Sanders, Artists Space
Lucía Sanromán, Director of Visual Arts, Yerba Buena Center of the Arts
Ingrid Schaffner
Paul Schmelzer, Managing Editor, Walker Art Center
Gregory Sholette, Social Practice Queens
Joshua Simon, former Director and Chief Curator, MoBY Museums of Bat Yam, Israel
Manon Slome
Marvin J. Taylor, Fales Library, New York University
Diya Vij
Joanna Warsza, Artistic Director, Public Art Munich 2018, Germany
Martha Wilson, Founding Director, Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc.
Yukiko Yamagata
Further reading: Queens Museum Director Laura Raicovich Resigns Amid Political Differences With Board
Open Letter on the Future of Documenta (Kassel, Germany)
Courtesy of Documenta, Kassel
Statement on documenta gGmbH’s separation from Annette Kulenkampff
To the members of the board of documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH:
Oberbürgermeister Christian Geselle (Vorsitzender)
Staatsminister Boris Rhein (stellv. Vorsitzender)
Staatsministerin Eva Kühne-Hörmann
Stadtverordneter Dr.Rabani Alekuzei
Stadtverordneter Marcus Leitschuh
MdL Karin Müller
Stadtverordneter Axel Selbert
Stadtverordneter Gernot Rönz
Hortensia Völckers, Vorstand der Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Alexander Farenholtz, Vorstand der Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Staatsminister Axel Wintermeyer
Staatssekretär Dr. Martin J. Worms
January 14, 2018
Through this letter we wish to express our concern that the recent considerations and decisions made by the documenta supervisory board have considerably damaged one of Germany’s internationally active and influential cultural institutions and thus also the image of Germany abroad. Local and state politicians, who form the ranks of the supervisory board in particular and are the shareholders of documenta gGmbH, haven taken a financial deficit(1) that they themselves effected as a cause to openly debate the restructuring of documenta in the direction of a pure commercialization and marketing of the documenta brand.
A first consequence of these considerations was the dissolution of the contract with Chief Executive Officer Annette Kulenkampff. No other reason can be given, as there has been no proof whatsoever of her culpability for the above-mentioned deficit, which arose through a program concept for which all involved parties shared responsibility.
Moreover, these are the same politicians who have remained unable to respond to the derailments of the right-wing party AfD, which described an artwork by Olu Oguibe as “disfigured art” (entstellte Kunst), clearly referring to fascist terminology.
The political deliberations now sparked range from a repeal of the non-profit status of documenta gGmbH to the integration of public relations work into city marketing and to a redistribution of the financial risk burden. Ultimately, this means relocating responsibility, concentrating revenues on the public purse, and at the same time minimizing freedom of the arts. The planned legal framework aims at nothing other than to align conceptual and artistic freedom with purely budgetary restrictions.
It would be absurd for anyone to doubt the benefits of an event unique on the international stage that boasts around 900,000 visitors, with its significance for the mediation of art going far beyond that of any other art venue. In this regard, it seems almost absurd that the “documenta city” of Kassel and the state of Hessen now presume to question a model of success that has grown over many decades and is already well rooted in history books, all because one single edition of the project could easily be bashed politically as it was partially held in a different European country. Ignoring the advice of all experts, the mayor and the state of Hessen have unnecessarily raised doubts about whether Kassel is still the right location for documenta.
Indeed, the idea to blame Annette Kulenkampff and the second location in Athens for the deficit of documenta 14 is patently false.(2) All involved parties were aware of the fact that the selection of a second site can incur additional costs. The cost risk was communicated in a timely manner. No other reason for the vehement interference by local and regional politicians can be identified than the attempt to take possession of an independent structure and, in the process, to first rid themselves of the very person, Annette Kulenkampff, who had sought to ensure, in a particularly uncomfortable way, the artistic and scholarly autonomy of documenta.
Her groundbreaking plans for the academic research into and mediation of the documenta archive, for the proper care of artworks in public space, and the contemporary renewal of documenta as a globally operating institution are counteracted by this misguided discussion. The desire of the documenta exhibitions since 1997 to offer a stage to non-Western and non-market-oriented positions and to consider this stage in conjunction with other locations is equally counteracted.
If Kassel wants to continue to see itself as a site for a documenta that is irreplaceable on the international stage, then the following requirements must be addressed:
1. The supervisory board must be enlarged by an international expert advisory board, which, in close cooperation with documenta gGmbH, will develop a forward-looking, binding catalogue of criteria for documenta.
2. The legal status as a non-profit GmbH must be maintained.
3. The progressive plans for scholarly research into and mediation of the documenta archive, for the proper care of artwork in public space, and the contemporary renewal of documenta must be continued.
4. The budget of documenta must be adapted to the requirements of a global art event with worldwide impact that is unique in its dimensions.
5. The supervisory board must offer Annette Kulenkampff a continued post since she has given documenta such a promising orientation.
First signatories:
Marion Ackermann (Generaldirektorin der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden)
Silke Albrecht (Geschäftsführerin des Württembergischen Kunstvereins Stuttgart)
Lotte Arndt (Theoretikerin, Kunsthochschule Valence, Paris)
Inke Arns (Künstlerische Leiterin des Hartware MedienKunstVereins, Dortmund)
Michael Arzt (Halle 14 Leipzig, Vorstand der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine, ADKV)
Elke aus dem Moore (Leiterin Kunst, Institut für Auslandesbeziehungen, Stuttgart)
Zdenka Badovinac (Director of Moderna Galerija + Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana)
Nuit Banai (Professorin für neuste Kunstgeschichte, Wien)
Bassam El Baroni (Lecturer Dutch Art Institute, NL, and Independent Curator – Manifesta 8, 36th Eva Int. Ireland’s Biennial)
Ute Meta Bauer (Gründungsdirektorin des NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapur)
Meike Behm (Direktorin Kunsthalle Lingen, Vorstand der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine, ADKV)
Ralf Beil (Direktor des Kunstmuseums Wolfsburg)
Andreas F. Beitin (Direktor des Ludwig Forum für internationale Kunst, Aachen)
René Block (Leiter der Kunsthalle 44Moen, Askeby)
Monica Bonvicini (Künstlerin, Berlin)
Reinhard Braun (Künstlerischer Leiter, Camera Austria, Graz)
Sabeth Buchmann (Professorin für Kunstgeschichte der Moderne und Nachmoderne an der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien)
Manon Bursian (Vorstand und Stiftungsdirektorin der Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt)
Binna Choi (Director of Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht)
Hans D. Christ (Direktor des Württembergischen Kunstvereins Stuttgart)
Cosmin Costinas (Executive Director / Curator of Para Site, Hong Kong)
Alice Creischer, Andreas Siekmann (Künstler_innen, Professor_innen an der Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee, MA Raumstrategien)
Janneke de Vries (Direktorin der GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen)
Ekaterina Degot (Intendantin des Steirischen Herbst, Graz)
Chris Dercon (Intendant der Volksbühne, Berlin)
Ulrich Domröse (Leiter der fotografischen Sammlung, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin)
Iris Dressler (Direktorin des Württembergischen Kunstvereins Stuttgart)
Katja Diefenbach (Professorin für Ästhetische Theorie an der Merz Akademie, Stuttgart)
Ines Doujak (Künstlerin, Wien)
Helmut Draxler (Professor für Kunsttheorie an der Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien)
Övül Ö. Durmusoglu (Guest Professor for Curatorial Theory and Praxis, Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts)
Bettina von Dziembowski (Kunstverein Springhornhof)
Yilmaz Dziewior (Direktor des Museum Ludwig, Köln)
Silvia Eiblmayr (Kunsthistorikerin, Kuratorin, Wien)
Charles Esche (Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven)
Matthias Flügge (Rektor der Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden)
Martin Fritz (Rektor der Merz Akademie Stuttgart)
Katya García-Antón (Direktorin des OCA, Office for Contemporary Art Norway)
Gerrit Gohlke (Künstlerischer Leiter des Brandenburgischen Kunstvereins Potsdam, Vorstand der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine, ADKV)
Cristina Gómez Barrio, Wolfgang Mayer / Discoteca Flaming Star (Künstler_innen, Professor_innen für Bildende Kunst und Intermediales Gestalten an der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart)
Søren Grammel (Leiter des Museums für Gegenwartskunst, Basel)
Ulrike Groos, Direktorin des Kunstmuseums Stuttgart
Elke Gruhn (Leiterin Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Vorstand der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine, ADKV)
Krist Gruijthuijsen (Direktor des KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin)
Jan Peter Hammer (Künstler, Berlin)
Hou Hanru (Artistic Director, MAXXI, National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome)
Annette Hans (Künstlerische Leiterin, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof)
Markus Heinzelmann (Direktor des Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen)
Fatima Hellberg (Künstlerische Leiterin des Künstlerhaus Stuttgart)
Gabriele Horn (Direktorin der Berlin Biennale)
Hans Dieter Huber (Professor für Kunstgeschichte der Gegenwart, Ästhetik und Kunsttheorie an der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart)
Lanna Idriss, Member of the Board of BHF Foundation
Gregor Jansen (Direktor der Kunsthalle Düsseldorf)
Jean-Baptiste Joly (Direktor der Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart)
Alice Kögel (Konservatorin für Gegenwartskunst, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart)
Alexander Kluge (Autor und Filmemacher, München)
Alexander Koch (Die Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber, KOW Galerie)
Kasper König (Kurator, u.a. künstlerischer Leiter von Skulptur.Projekte Münster 1977-2017)
Christian Kravagna (Professor für Postcolonial Studies an der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien)
Andres Kreuger (Senior Curator, M HKA, Antwerp)
Katia Krupennikova (Freischaffende Kuratorin, Amsterdam)
Elisabeth Lebovici (Art critic, Paris)
Mathias Lindner (Direktor Neue Sächsische Galerie, Neue Chemnitzer Kunsthütte, Vorstand der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine, ADKV)
Thomas Locher (Künstler, Rektor der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig)
Dirk Luckow (Intendant Deichtorhallen Hamburg)
Mark Nash (Co-curator of Documenta 11)
Antje Majewski (Künstlerin, Professorin der Muthesius Kunsthochschule, Kiel)
Florian Malzacher (Kurator, Impulse Theater Festival 2013-17)
Nina Möntmann (Kunsttheoretikerin und Kuratorin)
Matthias Mühling (Direktor der Städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München)
Vanessa Joan Müller (Dramaturgin der Kunsthalle Wien)
Heike Munder (Direktorin des Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst Zürich)
Joanna Mytkowska (Direktorin des Museum of Modern Art Warschau)
Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (Künstlerischer Leiter von SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin)
Anh-Linh Ngo (Mitherausgeber von ARCH+)
Olaf Nicolai (Künstler, Berlin)
Ruth Noack (Kuratorin der Documenta 12, 2007)
Angelika Nollert (Direktorin Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, München)
Hannelore Paflik-Huber (Kunstwissenschaftlerin, Vorsitzende des Künstlerhauses Stuttgart)
Peter Pakesch (Vorstandsmitglied der Maria Lassnig Privatstiftung, Wien)
Christine Peters (Kuratorin des Kunstgebäude Stuttgart, 2017)
Britta Peters (Künstlerische Leiterin von Urbane Künste Ruhr; Kuratorin der Skulptur.Projekte Münster 2017)
Philippe Pirotte (Rektor der Staatlichen Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main)
Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology & Gender Studies, Columbia University
Raqs Media Collective (Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi & Shuddhabrata Sengupta, New Dehli)
Oliver Ressler (Künstler und Filmemacher, Wien)
David Riff (Schriftsteller, Kurator, Künstler, Berlin)
Walid Raad (Künstler, Professor an der Cooper Union, New York)
Kathrin Romberg (Sammlungsdirektorin Erst Bank Österreich, Wien)
Anda Rottenberg (Direktorin emeritus Zachenta National Gallery of Art, Warschau)
Rasha Salti (Independent Curator of Art & Film, Curator of La Lucarne for ArteFrance)
Hedwig Saxenhuber (springerin, Wien)
Nicolaus Schafhausen (Direktor der Kunsthalle Wien)
Georg Schöllhammer (tranzit.at, Wien)
Ursula Schöndeling (Direktorin des Heidelberger Kunstvereins, Vorstand der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine, ADKV)
Sabine Schulze (Direktorin des Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg)
Nathalie Boseul Shin (Chief curator of Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul)
Andrei Siclodi (Direktor des Künstlerhauses Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck)
Jennifer Smailes (Künstlerische Leiterin, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof)
Ruth Sonderegger (Professorin für Philosophie und ästhetische Theorie an der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien)
Björg Stefánsdóttir (Direktor des Icelandic Art Center, Reykjavik
Simon Sheikh (Programme Director, MFA Curating Department of Art Goldsmiths College, London)
Bettina Steinbrügge (Direktorin des Kunstvereins in Hamburg)
Barbara Steiner (Leiterin des Kunsthaus Graz)
Hito Steyerl (Künstlerin, Professorin für Experimentalfilm und Video an der Universität der Künste Berlin)
Wolfgang Suttner (Vorstand der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine, ADKV)
Nina Tabassomi (Direktorin des Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol)
Michael Taussig (Professor at Columbia University, New York)
Ana Teixeira Pinto (Autorin, Kulturtheoretikerin, Berlin)
Thomas Thiel (Direktor des Bielefelder Kunstvereins, Vorstand der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine, ADKV)
Haakon Thuestad (Director of the Bergen Assembly)
Wolfgang Tillmans (Künstler, Berlin, London)
Nasan Tur (Künstler, Berlin)
Wolfgang Ullrich (Freier Autor und Kunstwissenschaftler, Leipzig)
Philippe Van Cauteren (Director of S.M.A.K., Museum for Contemporary Art, Ghent)
Anton Vidokle (Artist, founder of e-flux, New York/Berlin)
Christoph Vogtherr (Direktor der Hamburger Kunsthalle)
Marianne Wagner (Kuratorin für Gegenwartskunst des Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster)
Joanna Warsza (Kuratorin, Public Art Munich 2018)
Peter Weibel (Vorstand und Direktor des Zentrums für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe)
Thomas Weski (Kurator der Stiftung für Fotografie und Medienkunst mit Archiv Michael Schmidt)
What, How and for Whom / WHW (Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović)
Axel John Wieder (Direktor, Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation)
Matthias Winzen (Professor für Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttheorie an der Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar, Saarbrücken)
Florian Wüst (Film- und Videokurator der Transmediale, Berlin)
Regina Wyrwoll (Kuratorin Peter und Irene Ludwig Stiftung / Findungskommission documenta X)
Misal Adnan Yildiz (Direktor des Artspace NZ in Auckland, 2014–2017)
Octavio Zaya (Director and Executive Editor of atlanticajournal.com, Cocurator of Documenta 11)
Nina Zimmer (Direktorin des Kunstmuseum Bern, Zentrum Paul Klee Bern)
Franciska Zólyom (Direktorin der GfzK, Leipzig)
(1) In fact, Christian Geselle, the former city treasurer and now mayor, didn’t seem to have any qualms, in his function as a council member, about defending a deficit for the Hessentag 2013. This was a three-day event of regional provenance, which took place in 2013 in Kassel and caused a deficit of 4.63 million euros. On this, see “Komplizierte Fest-Rechnung: Hessentag beschert in der Regel Defizit,” op-online.de, November 11, 2016, https://www.op-online.de/hessen/hessentag-beschert-regel-defizit-6969761.html.
(2) Such a picture becomes heavily imbalanced when one takes the added economic value of city and land into account. See “Kunst als Standortfaktor: So viel Geld spült die documenta nach Kassel,” hessenschau.de, May 11, 2017, http://www.hessenschau.de/wirtschaft/so-viel-geld-spuelt-die-documenta-nach-kassel,documenta-wirtschaft-100.html.
