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Famed German art show on brink of bankruptcy after running up millions in debts

International art exhibition documenta in Kassel is on the brink of insolvency just days before it comes to a close on Sunday.

Published: 13 September 2017 14:40 CEST
Famed German art show on brink of bankruptcy after running up millions in debts
Visitors at Documenta in front of a showpiece called "The Parthenon of Books." Photo: DPA.

Documenta has squandered a budget of €37 million with a “dramatic” deficit of about €7 million, local newspaper Hessische Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA) reported on Tuesday

Spokesman for the city of Kassel, Claas Michaelis, has not confirmed how much the deficit amounts to, stating it was “under investigation.”

Shareholders of the exhibition, including the central German state of Hesse and the city of Kassel, plan to provide necessary financial support and ensure that employees’ salaries are paid by dishing out €7 million over the next five years. Documenta has been held every five years since 1972.

Mayor of Kassel, Christian Geselle, who is also chairman of documenta’s supervisory board, stated in a press release he was informed at the end of August about “impending financial bottlenecks,” though did not mention reasons why.

For the first time in documenta’s history, this year’s edition featured a secondary venue in Athens, Greece. Artwork was showcased in both Athens and Kassel with no change in budget. According to the HNA, the Greek show devoured much more money than anticipated.

The exhibition’s managers have already begun putting together a report and auditors have started analyzing the books, according to Michaelis. Both reports will be available next week, after which the public will be informed.

At the exhibition’s half-way point in July, documenta officials had drawn a positive balance. By the end of July, 445,000 visitors had been counted – 17 percent more than at the exhibition’s half-way point at the previous documenta in 2012.

Managing director Annette Kulenkampff has not commented on the deficit. Before the exhibition began, she had expressed concerns that the show’s budget was too low.

“An increase in public funding will become necessary in the future,” she said in a March interview with the German Press Agency (DPA).

Aware of the “outstanding significance of documenta for the city of Kassel and the state of Hesse,” we want to continue as an exhibition of world-class contemporary art in Kassel, stated mayor Geselle.

Documenta is one of the world's largest contemporary art shows and attracts visitors from all over the world. The 2017 edition featured artwork from over 160 artists.

SEE ALSO: 'Parthenon' made of books built at site of Nazi book burning

ART

African-born director’s new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

One of the rare African-born figures to head a German cultural institution, Bonaventure Ndikung is aiming to highlight post-colonial multiculturalism at a Berlin arts centre with its roots in Western hegemony.

Published: 8 July 2023 10:13 CEST
African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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