Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-12-21

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Athens to co-host German Documenta 14 exhibition

[01] Athens to co-host German Documenta 14 exhibition

"Inspiration could be found in Greece, and more specifically in Athens," according to Adam Szymczyk, aristic director, who believes that the Greek problems will soon become world problems.

The different locations and divergent historical, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds of Kassel and Athens inspire and influence the individual works of art.

Artists have been invited to think and produce within the context of the emerging dynamic relationship between these two cities and to develop a work for each of the two locations.

The main issues of this year exhibition are the refugee crisis, the financial crisis, restitution problems and censorship, Annie-Claire Geisinger, Communications Coordinator, said in meeting with foreign correspondents at the offices of FPA in Athens.

One of the key projects of this year's exhibition is the Parthenon of Books. The Parthenon of Books is a symbol of opposition to the banning of writings and the persecution of their authors. For the realization of this work, Argentine artist Marta Minujín and the documenta 14 team are collecting books that have now been published anew after having been banned for years. The installation The Parthenon of Books will be presented in Kassel as a replica of the temple on the Acropolis in Athens, which symbolizes the aesthetic and political ideals of the world's first democracy. Composed of as many as 100,000 banned books from all over the world, the work will be erected on Friedrichsplatz in Kassel, where some two thousand books were burned during the so-called "Aktion wider den undeutschen Geist" (Campaign against the Un-German Spirit).

The Parthenon of Books traces its origins to an installation titled El Partenón de libros, which was realized in 1983, shortly after the collapse of the civilian-military dictatorship in Argentina, and presented the very books that had been banned by the ruling junta. After five days of exhibition, two cranes tipped the building slightly to one side, allowing viewers to remove the books and take them home. A public action devoted to returning the once-forbidden books to circulation is also being planned for the new Parthenon at the end of documenta 14.

More than 130 artists will display their works during the 100 days of the exhibition throughout the museums, buildings and public spaces in Athens as of early April. The exhibition will include paintings, installations, music and film festivals.

Documenta is held every five years, and presents new directions to an international audience. The first documenta, an exhibition of Western European modern art, was organized in Kassel in 1955. It was initiated by a group of art enthusiasts led by artist, art professor and curator Arnold Bode (1900-1977). Bode, who counted among those the Nazis defamed and persecuted as representatives of "degenerate art," staged the show at Museum Fridericianum, at the time still not fully rebuilt after it was destroyed by Allies' bombings in 1941, while it served as Hessian State Library.

Their intention was to show that modern art had a significant role in the process of reconstructing German society after the Second World War. In the course of thirteen iterations of documenta that have taken place until today, the exhibition has turned into a place of major debates on contemporary culture and its current sociopolitical context.

The exhibition is expected to attract a lot of tourists in Athens. Documenta 13 saw a record number of visitors as it attracted more than 800,000 people.

Lila Chotzoglou

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