exergue – on documenta 14, Kapitel 06

EXERGUE – ON DOCUMENTA 14 is a decidedly modest title for a 14-hour-long film, the final chapter of which reveals its meaning. By then, a journey equally gripping and harrowing has come to an end, leaving its protagonists rattled by the forces they sought to question, even if they can at least say that all their hard work made a mark to be read in the future. Dimitris Athiridis’ hugely compelling third documentary feature follows curator Adam Szymczyk from 2015 to 2017 during the preparation of the famous quinquennial art exhibition. The proposal that landed him the job as artistic director was that the art event would not only take place in Kassel but, in line with Okwui Enwezor’s documenta 11 logic of decentralisation, also in Athens, at the time of the austerity measures following the sovereign debt crisis. He and
his team were eventually bullied by the German media and political establishment for going over budget, pilloried over debt in a patronising manner reminiscent of the EU’s economic leader’s attitude towards Greece. However, the subsequent controversies surrounding documenta suggest a deeper problem. The Indonesian collective ruangrupa’s 15th edition was accused of anti-Semitism, while political pressure has also halted the next edition’s preparations under a similar pretence. What is at stake here is the very existence of publicly funded art, particularly of a politically relevant kind, at a time when privatisation and corporate interests dominate. This is where documenta 14 left its mark. In their attempts to “learn from Athens”, to make a sprawling, multi-faceted exhibition addressing issues of migration, colonialism and self-determination, the curatorial team questioned the ownership of cultural institutions, the betrayal of representative bodies and the stranglehold of the market. Athiridis conceives of documentary cinema with a similar commitment to public transparency. His film’s astonishing level of accessstems as much from Szymczyk’s willing participation over two years—while meeting artists all over the world, discussing curatorial and budget issues, installing the works, meeting journalists and politicians—as from his own decade-long work in recording, piecing together and synthesising material to make the issues at hand intelligible without losing any of their complexity. Athiridis’ desire for truth is multiplied by his obvious love for storytelling and for art in general. While EXERGUE is shot in a largely vérité style, the serial structure is a narrative tour de force, interpolating diferent temporalities to read history in a non-linear way, to put what demagogy has locked into simplistic causality into perspective, to honour every actor in this play, and to go back to the very essence of curation: what is it that we should care for? (Antoine Thirion)

On October 19th in the presence of Dimitris Athiridis and Adam Szymczyk.

This film will be shown as part of the screenings EXERGUE, Chapters 05-10 and EXERGUE, Chapters 01-07.

On Sunday, October 20nd 2024, there will be a talk with Dimitris Athiridis at the VIENNALE ZENTRALINO. More information here!