Field trip to documenta 15

The students in the Master 2 Curatorial Studies program traveled to Kassel, Germany, from September 21 to 23, 2022, to visit the fifteenth edition of the documenta accompanied by their teachers: Erik Verhagen (pedagogical head of the master), Nicolas Devigne and Henri Duhamel.

This major event of contemporary art, created in 1955 by the architect and artist Arnold BOLDE in the post-World War II context proposes every five years a state of the art of international creation during one hundred days. This documenta 15, highly politicized, takes a step aside from the usual organization. For the first time, it is a collective of curators from Indonesia - the Ruangrupa - that has established the programming (more than 1000 invited artists) choosing to focus on the art of oppressed peoples and minorities of the Global South by prioritizing approaches outside the art market.

The documenta 15 gives pride of place to militant and committed proposals, coupled with a democratic vision of art, embodied by the concept of " lumbung " (an Indonesian term referring to the sharing of surplus rice crops within the community). As for the " social sculpture " of the artist Joseph BEUYS, the key words of this edition were: exchange, solidarity and co-construction.

Second year students of the master Curatorial Studies were thus able to travel for two days through some of the many exhibition venues : from the most emblematic (the Fridericianum, the Documenta Halle and other museums in the city) to the most unexpected and out of the way (parks, train station, factory, wasteland, church...) hosting the works, installations and other artists' interventions. A short and intense stay to take the pulse of societal and global issues as well as that of contemporary artistic creation.

Photo des étudiants en compagnie de Erik Verhagen, responsable pédagogique du master.

Les étudiants de deuxième année du master Études Curatoriales ont pu ainsi parcourir deux jours durant une partie des nombreux lieux d’expositions : des plus emblématiques (le Fridericianum, la Documenta Halle et d'autres musées de la ville) aux plus inattendus et excentrés (parcs, gare, usine, friche, église…) accueillant les œuvres, installations et autres interventions d'artistes. Un séjour court et intense pour prendre le pouls des enjeux sociétaux et mondiaux ainsi que celui de la création artistique contemporaine.