Having lived in Kassel for quite a while now, I find it amusing that every five years there are various people, scholars, artists etc. who claim it is time to move DOCUMENTA to another city, preferably to another metropolis. They(usually Germans) now find Athens highly inspiring and think that Kassel has lost its power(even befire the exhibition was opened here)…Of course a city like Athens is most inspiring- I mean, hey! a city which can prove around 7500 years of settlement and being a center of the mediterrannean world is of course another type of fish that a provinical city as Kassel. But let’t get that right- a guy who happened to be a citizen of Kassel had an idea, which became a famous exhobition in a 5 year interval. Why should this tradition be removed to …where? Athens? And hasn’t there been a shift/a connection with other places in the history of DOCUENTA? Okwui Enwesor turned the exhibtition in platforms on different continents, Kassel being ONE platform,or CCB, with exhibitions in Afghanistan? And where should it be moved to?
Berlin? Another event, this time maybe not aimed at all those cultural interested busloads, who want to get the international air of all those Berlin hipsters?
Art and culture can happen everywhere- DOCUMENTA ws started in Kasselout of the rubble of World War II-Lets see what other formats other cities might develop, rather than try to copy/paste;-)