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Work ⟩2000s ⟩Documenta Kassel 2002

About the Work

Documenta was introduced to Kassel, a decade after the end of World War 2 by the Kassel-born architect and painter Arnold Bode, to show works banned as degenerate by the Nazis. It has since taken place every five years and has developed into the largest and most seriously-prestigious international exhibition of contemporary art in the world.

I usually feel when exhibiting in or visiting shows in Germany that the ghosts of the past are blanked out in the interests of examining the art of the present. At the 2002 Documenta, I attempted a circumvention.

My first port of call was the city archives which in Kassel consisted of floor-to-ceiling brown cardboard boxes, each filled with notes, drawings and photographs documenting the old city's growth and destruction. A major architectural casualty was the city's theatre, pictured here.

The second place to go took some finding. Hidden away in suburban Kassel is a big private collection of German military uniforms run by a retired soldier. He said he was puzzled that an English artist should see his exhibition before visiting the glitzy Documenta.