Despite the heavy and negative criticism that it has received from the media (both local and international), Documenta14 is the biggest and most ambitious artistic festival that has been organized in Athens for many years. Therefore my visit could not ignore this and so, after reading the short summary for every film screening, every installation, every performance, every exhibition that has been included the programme of this festival, I chose to visit 7 of the 40 sites that are participating in it. My only criterion was based on what appealed most to my artistic instincts. The sites I visited were the following: Benaki Museum (Pireos Building), National Technical University of Athens, Ancient Agora, Athens Conservatoire, 15 Stavropoulou street, Athens School of Fine Arts, Museum of Anti-dictatorial and Democratic Resistance.
Documenta14 is entitled ‘Learning From Athens‘ and despite what the title implies, the performances and exhibitions in many of the participating sites, have little or nothing to do with Athens or the history of each site.It is important to note that the 40 sites were
selected by the organizers, based on their historic significance in the history of Greece and that of Athens as well. There are plenty of sources online for anyone who might be interested in reading about the controversies that accompanied some performances that have already been presented in a few of these sites.
In my opinion, there were important and strong conclusions to be drawn just by noticing that the biggest percentage of the visitors of Documenta14 were tourists and even local people were greeted in english or german by greek members of staff in most of these sites. One could not ignore the fact, that a lot of works had not been translated in greek (some videos did not even have subtitles) and thus were immediately incomprehensible by the local people.A lot of the artwork was not explained as there was no accompanying text and/or the accompanying text was placed on the floor and was consisted of more than 10 A4 pages with very small fonts…
Of all the exhibits I saw during my visit in Athens and Documenta14 in 10 days,it was the performances and the projects that combined music and crafts that I liked the most, as I found that they were both beautiful in themselves and were mostly associated with the nature and use of the buildings in which they were presented. Despite its original and fascinating title Documenta14 seems to have failed to deliver its mission which was to learn from Athens.
Approaching it as a big art festival without ascribing to it any historic meaning or any other idea that had to do with the city of Athens as a paradigm, seemed to be the ideal way to appreciate the artwork and the abundance of information and material that the curators of this festival have skilfully gathered together in one show. It is beyond doubt, that the visitor of Documenta14 will leave this festival having enriched his/her knowledge in a number of areas.
ArchWorm 