Lower East

dOCUMENTA (13) – 4

We rush in to bring the last post from dOCUMENTA (13). We spend some good hours just being, looking, listening and exploring this very cool project:

12 Ballads for the Huguenot House
: (text from the documenta webpage) “In collaboration with a team of development workers-in-training from Chicago and from Kassel, Theaster Gates is restoring and reactivating the historic Huguenot House in Kassel. Once the restoration is completed, the house will be turned into a meeting place and location of varied performative and social events. Part of these events, The Black Monks of Mississippi, an ensemble of Chicago-based musicians, give multiple performances throughout the days and the evenings of the opening week of the exhibition. The Black Monks of Mississippi has performed with Theaster Gates over the years, calling on the rich jazz, blues, soul, and gospel traditions of the US.“

Check out the project here (external link)

The Huguenot House ©lowereast.dk

The Huguenot House ©lowereast.dk

The Huguenot House ©lowereast.dk

The Huguenot House ©lowereast.dk

dOCUMENTA (13) – 3

It’s closing time. dOCUMENTA (13) are closing the doors for the exhibition in Kassel, Germany on September 16. Be there – or you will have to wait until 2017 for the next documenta. If you manage to go there this week, you just HAVE TO see the William Kentridge installation ‘The Refusal of Time’.

Five films are projected on the walls of an industrial space at the train station. A large wooden “breathing machine“ with moving parts are placed in the center of the room. The sounds of speaking and music are transmitted through silver megaphones, one at each corner, each with a different soundtrack.

The room was magic! We would so much like to experience it again.

William Kentridge ©lowereast.dk

William Kentridge ©lowereast.dk

William Kentridge ©lowereast.dk

dOCUMENTA (13) – 2

Second post from Lower East’s Documenta (13). Study for Strings, a atmospheric sound installation by the artist Susan Philipsz, based on Pavel Haas’ Study for Strings from 1943. At the end of platform 13 at the former Hauptbahnhof, which is today only in marginal use, we listened quietly to the artist’s work mixing up with the railway noise in the hot sun. At the very same place three major transports deported Jewish families to concentration camps during World War 2.

You can hear a sound bite from Susan Philipsz’ work at youtube

Kassel HBF © lowereast.dk

Study for Strings, screen dump from youtube

Study for Strings, screen dump from youtube

dOCUMENTA (13) – 1

There’s a big thing going around these days: The dOCUMENTA (13) exhibition in Kassel, Germany. From mid-June until mid-September, 100 days to be precise. Lower East went there and we were really impressed, almost blown away. Art all over Kassel! We managed to see maybe one-tenth of the exhibitions, most likely less. We had some very good recommendations on what to explore from people, who had already been there – and by checking the comprehensive programme we found even more must-see artists and exhibitions.

The next days we will post some of our great experiences at dOCUMENTA (13).
If you have two or three days in your ‘bank’ and have the chance, then go there!
More info at d13.documenta.de

Two very big ‘things’ at dOCUMENTA (13) was Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s “for a thousand years“ and “Alter Bahnhof Video Walk“. One taking place in a forested area of the Karlsaue Park and the other one at the old train station in the middle of Kassel. Both very fantastic and touching experiences.

In for a thousand years “the audience is invited to sit in the forest as a complex audio composition unfolds, creating a unique experience that progresses within a spherical sound field created by more than thirty speakers positioned in the natural setting. The sounds move the audience from one scene to another as if in a dream.“ (text from the dOCUMENTA catalog).

Alter Bahnhof Video Walk invites visitors to Kassel’s Hauptbahnhof to take a walk through the old train station. Equipped with portable media players that can be borrowed at the station, or provided with downloads for personal media devices, participants are guided through the station by image and sound. The events unfolding on the small screen, previously filmed by the artists, show the exact location in which participants are located, and play back its sounds. As visitors follow the moving images (and try to frame them as if they were the camera operator) a strange confusion of realities past and present occurs, which deepens their experience of their surroundings.“ (text from the dOCUMENTA catalog).

dOCUMENTA (13) ©lowereast.dk

for a thousand years ©lowereast.dk

for a thousand years ©lowereast.dk

Alter Bahnhof Video Walk (2012). © Cardiff & Miller

Alter Bahnhof Video Walk (2012). © Cardiff & Miller

Alter Bahnhof Video Walk (2012). © Cardiff & Miller