«Superdocumenta» was created in the winter of 1994, on an invitation by Gunter Reski, as a contribution to the Hamburg-related text reader «Team Compendium – Selfmade Matches. Selbstorganisation Bereich Kunst», ed. by Rita Baukrowitz and Karin Günther. Initially supposed to be a written text on the actuality of the curatorial principle developed by Harald Szeemann for documenta 5, the contribution was done at a safe distance from suitable libraries on contemporary art, and with no Google or internet support whatsoever.The essay is mostly based on a heap of photocopied reviews and a copy of the legendary orange plastic file that was used instead of a catalogue for documenta 5 (1972), carried along by the author to a study sojourn in Italy. It seemed remarkable that all of the reviews used more or less the same images. Thus, a critical approach on the pictorial level – in the manner of a 1970s student zine – seemed more fitting than any more affirmative looking essay that was only written text. The ants meandering through these eight pictorial pages are gleaned from the catalogue file’s cover. There they arrange their bodies, in the style of a Maoist dancing troupe, to form a huge «5».
Was hier unter der Flagge der Karikatur segelt ist nichts anderes als die frühe Form eines schonungslosen Sozialrealismus, anklagend und offensiv. Die Figurengruppe macht einen kraftvollen und monumentalen Eindruck, Elend im historienbildartigen Zuschnitt, und genau so war es gemeint. Der Verleger von La Caricature Charles Philipon kam, wie die meisten seiner Zeichner aus der Schule […]
Frédéric Ehlers is an infinite number of authors who use the pen to explore the expanse of the sheet of paper and who cross the three-dimensional space with their rhythmical movements in an analogous manner. The selection of drawings is counteracted here by film stills from his Movement Research. “You are very interested in arts” […]
II. Schildermalerei Der hervorragendste Interpret dieser demokratischen Emblematik war der Herausgeber von Ainsworths Jack Sheppard–Roman, der ausgebildete Parlamentsstenograph und Gerichtsreporter Charles Dickens.[29] Dickens hatte eine ähnliche Sozialisation wie Hogarth erfahren, mit einem Vater, der als Schuldner inhaftiert war, dem entsprechenden sozialen Abstieg und der Notwendigkeit, früh zum Unterhalt der Familie beizutragen. Die große Schnittmenge zwischen […]