What Can We Learn from dOCUMENTA (13)?

As part of a new programming collaboration 18th Street Arts Center andOtis Graduate Public Practice program co-present a discussion about dOCUMENTA (13), featuring local artists and curators who attended the international exhibition held this past summer in Kassel, Germany. One of the most important art exhibitions in the world, and held only every five years, dOCUMENTA includes work by some of the most innovative and respected artists showing across the globe who develop mostly site-specific projects for venues around the city. Through presentations from artists and curators who participated in or visited dOCUMENTA (13), the evening will look at projects and reflect on their relationionship to social practice right now.  What can artists and curators learn from the art projects, curatorial practice, expanded notions of location, pedagogy, and their intersections?

Moderated by 18th Street Art Center’s Director of Residency Programs Pilar Tompkins Rivas, the evening will feature documentation and first-hand accounts by local artists and curators, including: John Tain, art historian and curator for Modern and Contemporary Collections at the Getty Research Institute; Leslie Labowitz-Starus, artist; Ciara Ennis, Director/Curator, Pitzer Art Galleries, Pitzer College; and Tamarind Rossetti,  Graduate Public Practice artist, intern with Mariam Ghani at dOCUMENTA(13).

Image: Chiara Fumai, Shut Up. Actually, Talk (The world will not explode), 2012, Group performance on the roof of the Fridericianum featuring Zalumma Agra and the Stars of the East, words by Carla Lonzi (“Let’s Spit on Hegel,” 1970) and Rivolta Femminile (“I Say I,” 1977), costumes by Antonio Piccirilli, 60 min., Courtesy Chiara Fumai, Commissioned by dOCUMENTA (13) and produced with the support of Fiorucci Art Trust, London. Photo: Henrik Stromberg