Documenta12 16.06-09.09 Kassel

documenta is regarded as the most important exhibition of contemporary art, drawing attention from all over the world. It was initiated in 1955 by the artist and art educator, Arnold Bode, in Kassel. After the period of Nazi dictatorship, it was supposed to reconcile German public life with international modernity and also confront it with its own failed Enlightenment. Nobody would have thought at that time that the exhibition, often called the Hundred Day Museum, would become an unparalleled success. Nevertheless, the twelfth documenta will be taking place in summer 2007. The singular character of the exhibition has been preserved. Every five years, a new director is chosen and the exhibition is reinvented, a concept which to date has been affirmed by the public's interest. The number of visitors has continually risen. More than 650 thousand visitors came to Documenta11. Under continually changing directorship, and in the equally leisurely and inexorable rhythm of five years, documenta has advanced to become an authoritative worldwide seismograph of contemporary art. At documenta it becomes manifest whether art is succeeding in grasping the world in images and whether these images have validity for its public.
Roger M. Buergel is the artistic director of documenta 12 The artistic director of documenta 12 is Roger M. Buergel, an internationally active exhibition organiser and curator who was born in Berlin in 1962. Together with the art historian, Ruth Noack, as curator, he will, in line with documenta's claims, show art from the most various regions of the world and in all conceivable media. The works should not be shown simply unrelated to each other in a line, but be put into relationship with each other. The Leitmotifs: Three questions posed for art but also for its public To initiate such a productive exchange, documenta poses three questions for art, and also for its public: Is humanity able to recognise a common horizon beyond all differences? Is art the medium for this knowledge? What is to be done, what do we have to learn in order to cope intellectually and spiritually with globalisation? Is that a question of aesthetic education and cultivation? What constitutes life, when everything is subtracted which does not belong essentially to life? Does art help us to penetrate to what is essential? For further information on the Leitmotifs click here. These leitmotifs and questions which influence the curatorial process already require resonance space in the lead-up to the exhibition, both on local and international levels, which will be generated by two documenta 12 projects: documenta 12 magazines — a platform and three issues "The documenta 12 magazines will provide an interested public with the knowledge required to be able to move competently and therefore leisurely through the space of the exhibition." (Roger M. Buergel) One important project of the exhibition are the documenta 12 magazines, a magazine of magazines. More than 70 periodicals, magazines and online media from all over the world will enter into a dialogue. They will discuss and reflect the topics and theses of the exhibition. They will react to them and question them on the basis of their particular knowledge.

Scope Basel 12.-06

Building on the success of its international art fair program, Scope is proud to announce the launch of the first SCOPE Basel Contemporary art fair, June 12 – June 17, 2007, (with a FirstView for VIP on Monday, June 11 10am-4pm). Located in a 27,000 square-foot, post-industrial warehouse within walking distance of Art Basel 38, Scope Basel will present its most international fair focusing on emerging galleries from all over the world.Alongside featured curation, screenings, and special projects, Scope Basel is an invitational fair chosen by an elected selection committee. Each committee member is a representative from a particular city or region, inviting the most significant emerging galleries, curators, and artist projects.