documenta X was the tenth edition of documenta, a

quinquennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints. ...

contemporary

art exhibition An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects (in the most general sense) meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhi ...

. It was held between 21 June and 28 September 1997 in Kassel, Germany. The artistic director was

Catherine David Catherine David (born 1954) is a French art historian, curator and museum director. David was the first woman and the first non-German speaker to curate documenta X in Kassel, Germany (21 June – 28 September 1997). David is currently depu ...

. This was the first time a woman was appointed as artistic director of documenta. It is also the first time that the website of the exhibition was conceived as an artistic part of it.

chose the Swiss curator

Simon Lamunière Simon Lamunière (born 1961 in Geneva) is a Swiss art curator. After his studies at the School of Visual Arts in Geneva (today HEAD) and a postgraduate course at the Schule für Gestaltung in Basel, Simon Lamunière has received grants for a res ...

to conceive, design and curate the project. Part of documenta X was the experimental performance space and digital platform "Hybrid WorkSpace", curated by

Klaus Biesenbach Klaus Biesenbach (born 1966)Erica Orden (December 26, 2009)Herr Zeitgeist''New York Magazine''. is a European American curator and the museum director. He is the Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, with Berggruen Museum and Scharf-Gerstenberg Co ...

Nancy Spector Nancy Spector is an American museum curator who has held positions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the Brooklyn Museum. Education Spector graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981. She rece ...

, and

Hans-Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...

. The space was designed by architect Eicke Becker and featured important performances, among them the famous

Christoph Schlingensief Christoph Maria Schlingensief (24 October 1960 – 21 August 2010) was a German theatre director, performance artist, and filmmaker. Starting as an independent underground filmmaker, Schlingensief later staged productions for theatres and festivals ...

performance titled "" during which several artists were arrested. Florian Schneider used "Hybrid WorkSpace" as an opportunity to initiate the

No one is illegal No one is illegal is a loosely connected international network, which advocates for refugees and migrants present in a country unlawfully. Activists in the network take initiatives in favor of migrants who stay in a country illegally and are at ...

network.

Participants

* A Vito Acconci Studio, Robert Adams,

Pawel Althamer Pavel ( Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Macedonian: Павел, Czech, Slovene, Romanian: Pavel, Polish: Paweł, Ukrainian: Павло, Pavlo) is a male given name. It is a Slavic cognate of the name Paul (derived from the Greek Pavlos). P ...

Archigram Archigram was an avant-garde architectural group formed in the 1960s ⁠that was neofuturistic, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that was solely expressed through hypothetical ...

Archizoom Associati Archizoom Associati was a design studio from Florence, Italy founded in 1966. The group that founded the studio consists of Andrea Branzi Andrea Branzi (, born November 30, 1938) is a Florence-born Italian architect and designer. He currently li ...

, Art & Language, Aya & Gal Middle East * B Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé,

Lothar Baumgarten Lothar Baumgarten (5 October 1944 – 2 December 2018) was a German conceptual artist, based in New York and Berlin. His work includes installation and also film. Early life and education Born 1944 in Rheinsberg, Germany, Baumgarten attended ...

, Catherine Beaugrand, Samuel Beckett, Joachim Blank & Karl Heinz Jeron, Ecke Bonk, Florian Borkenhagen,

Marcel Broodthaers Marcel Broodthaers (28 January 1924 – 28 January 1976) was a Belgian poet, filmmaker, and visual artist with a highly literate and often witty approach to creating art works. In 1943-1951 he was a member of a Communist party. Life and career ...

Heath Bunting Heath Bunting (born 1966) is a British contemporary artist. Based in Bristol, he is a co-founder of the website ''irational.org'', and was one of the early practitioners in the 1990s of Net.art. Bunting's work is based on creating open and demo ...

, Charles Burnett, Jean-Marc Bustamante * C

Lygia Clark Lygia Pimentel Lins (23 October 1920 – 25 April 1988), better known as Lygia Clark, was a Brazilian artist best known for her painting and installation work. She was often associated with the Brazilian Constructivist movements of the mid-2 ...

, James Coleman, Stephen Craig, Jordan Crandall, Cabelo * D Diedrich Diederichsen, Stan Douglas * E

Ed van der Elsken Eduard van der Elsken (10 March 1925 – 28 December 1990) was a Dutch photographer and filmmaker. His imagery provides quotidian, intimate and autobiographic perspectives on the European zeitgeist spanning the period of the Second World War in ...

, Bruna Esposito,

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

Aldo van Eyck Aldo van Eyck (; 16 March 1918 – 14 January 1999) was a Dutch architect. He was one of the most influential protagonists of the architectural movement Structuralism. Family He was born in Driebergen, Utrecht, a son of poet, critic, essay ...

* F

Öyvind Fahlström Öyvind Axel Christian Fahlström (December 28, 1928 – November 9, 1976) was a Swedish multimedia artist. Biography Fahlström was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as the only child to Frithjof Fahlström and Karin Fahlström. In July 1939 he was s ...

, Patrick Faigenbaum,

Harun Farocki Harun Farocki (9 January 1944 – 30 July 2014) was a German filmmaker, author, and lecturer in film. Early life and education Farocki was born as Harun El Usman FaroqhiMargalit Fox (3 August 2014)''New York Times''. in Neutitschein, which is n ...

, Feng Mengbo,

Peter Fischli & David Weiss Peter Fischli (born 8 June 1952) and David Weiss (21 June 1946 – 27 April 2012), often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, were a Swiss artist duo that collaborated beginning in 1979. Their best-known work is the film '' Der Lauf der Dinge'' (''T ...

, Peter Friedl, Holger Friese * G

Daniele del Giudice Daniele Del Giudice (11 January 1949 – 2 September 2021) was an Italian author and lecturer. He lived in Venice, where he taught theatrical literature at the University Iuav of Venice. Biography Born in Rome in 1949, Del Giudice researched av ...

Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a British artist who lives and works in New York City.

Gob Squad Gob Squad is a British-German collective based in Nottingham and Berlin. They have worked collaboratively since 1994 in the fields of performance, video installation and theatre. History Gob Squad was founded in 1994. At the time, its members wer ...

Heiner Goebbels Heiner Goebbels (born 17 August 1952) is a German composer, conductor and professor at Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen and artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts Ruhrtriennale 2012–14. His composition ''Stifters Dinge ...

, Dorothee Golz,

Dan Graham Daniel Graham (March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022) was an American visual artist, writer, and curator in the writer-artist tradition. In addition to his visual works, he published a large array of critical and speculative writing that spanned ...

, Toni Grand, Hervé Graumann, Johan Grimonprez,

Ulrike Grossarth Ulrike Grossarth (born 1952) is a German artist, dancer, and academic. Since 1998 she has been professor of mixed media art at Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. She was awarded the 2009 Käthe Kollwitz Prize by the Academy of Arts, Berlin for her coll ...

* H

Hans Haacke Hans Haacke (born August 12, 1936) is a Germany, German-born artist who lives and works in New York City. Haacke is considered a "leading exponent" of Institutional Critique. Early life Haacke was born in Cologne, Germany. He studied at the ''S ...

Raymond Hains Raymond Hains (9 November 1926 – 28 October 2005) was a prominent French visual artist and a founder of the Nouveau réalisme movement. In 1960, he signed, along with Arman, François Dufrêne, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Ville ...

, Richard Hamilton, Siobhan Hapaska,

Carl Michael von Hausswolff Carl Michael von Hausswolff (born 1956) is a composer, visual artist, and curator based in Stockholm, Sweden. His main tools are recording devices (camera, tape deck, radar, sonar) used in an ongoing investigation of electricity, frequency, ar ...

Michal Heiman Michal Heiman (Hebrew language, Hebrew: מיכל היימן, born in Tel Aviv) is a Tel Aviv-Yafo based artist, curator, theoretician and activist. She is the founder of the ''Photographer Unknown Archive'' (1984) and creator of the Michal Heiman ...

, Nigel Henderson, Jörg Herold, Christine Hill,

Carsten Höller Carsten Höller (born December 1961) is a German artist. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.Alice Rawsthorn (January 2012)"Cliff Hanger - The Ghanaian home of artists Carsten Höller and Marcel Odenbach goes above—and beyond" ''W Magazi ...

Rosemarie Trockel Rosemarie Trockel (born 13 November 1952) is a German conceptual artist. She has made drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos and installations, and has worked in mixed media. From 1985, she made pictures using knitting-machines. She is a pr ...

, Christine Hohenbüchler und Irene Hohenbüchler, Edgar Honetschläger,

Felix Stephan Huber Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

, Hybrid WorkSpace * J Jackson Pollock Bar,

Jodi Jodi is a feminine given name which may refer to: People * Jodi Albert (born 1983), English actress * Jodi Anasta (born 1985), Australian actress and model * Jodi Anderson (born 1957), American heptathlete * Jodi Appelbaum-Steinbauer (born 1956) ...

( Joan Heemskerk & Dirk Paesmans),

Jon Jost Jon Stephen Jost (born 16 May 1943 in Chicago) is an American independent filmmaker. Born in Chicago to a military family, he grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. He began making films in January 1963 after being expel ...

On Kawara was a Japanese conceptual artist who lived in New York City from 1965. He took part in many solo and group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976. Early life Kawara was born in Kariya, Japan on December 24, 1932. After graduating fro ...

* K Mike Kelley &

Tony Oursler Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

William Kentridge William Kentridge (born 28 April 1955) is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films, especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s. The latter are constructed by ...

Martin Kippenberger Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona. Kippenb ...

Joachim Koester Joachim Koester (born 1962) is a conceptual artist. He works principally in still photography and video. Hal Foster, writing in Artforum, has characterized his work as being "along the borders between documentary and fiction." Over the last fifte ...

, Peter Kogler, Aglaia Konrad, Rem Koolhaas, Hans-Werner Kroesinger * L Suzanne Lafont,

Sigalit Landau Sigalit Ethel Landau ( he, סיגלית לנדאו; born 1969) is an Israeli sculptor, video and installation artist. Biography Sigalit Ethel Landau was born in 1969 in Jerusalem. She spent several years in the US and the UK. Between 1990 and 1 ...

Maria Lassnig Maria Lassnig (8 September 1919 – 6 May 2014) was an Austrian artist known for her painted self-portraits and her theory of "body awareness".Attias, Lauri''Maria Lassnig'', ''Frieze'', May 1996. She was the first female artist to win the Gran ...

, Jan Lauwers, Jozef Legrand, Antonia Lerch,

Helen Levitt Helen Levitt (August 31, 1913 – March 29, 2009) was an American photographer and cinematographer. She was particularly noted for her street photography around New York City. David Levi Strauss described her as "the most celebrated and least ...

Geert Lovink Geert Lovink (born 1959, Amsterdam) is the founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, whose goals are to explore, document and feed the potential for socio-economical change of the new media field through events, publications and open ...

* M Chris Marker,

Kerry James Marshall Kerry James Marshall (born October 17, 1955) is an American artist and professor, known for his paintings of Black figures. He previously taught painting at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2017, Marshall ...

Christoph Marthaler Christoph Marthaler (born 17 October 1951, in Erlenbach, Switzerland) is a Swiss director and musician, working in the style of avant-garde theater, such as Expressionism and Dada, a theater of the absurd elements. In 1998, he was awarded the IV ...

& Anna Viebrock,

Gordon Matta-Clark Gordon Matta-Clark (born Gordon Roberto Matta-Echaurren; June 22, 1943 – August 27, 1978) was an American artist best known for site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He was also a pioneer in the field of socially engaged food art. ...

, Steve McQueen,

Yana Milev Yana Milev is a German cultural theorist, sociologist, ethnographer, and curator. Life Yana Milev was born in Leipzig, East Germany, the first child of the Bulgarian physician and anthropologist Gancho Milev, who had immigrated to the GDR in t ...

, Mariella Mosler, Jean-Luc Moulène, Reinhard Mucha, Christian Philipp Müller, Matthias Müller,

Matt Mullican Matt Mullican (born September 18, 1951) is an American artist and educator. He is the child of artists Lee Mullican and Luchita Hurtado. Mullican lives and works in both Berlin and New York City. Early life and education Matt Mullican was b ...

Antoni Muntadas Antoni Muntadas (Barcelona, 1942) is a postconceptual multimedia artist, who resides in New York since 1971. His work often addresses social, political and communications issues through different media: such as photography, video, text and image ...

* N

Matthew Ngui Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...

Carsten Nicolai Carsten Nicolai (18 September 1965), also known as Alva Noto, is a German musician and visual artist. He is a member of the music groups Diamond Version with Olaf Bender (Byetone), Signal with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender, Cyclo with Ry ...

Olaf Nicolai Olaf Nicolai (born 1962 in Halle an der Saale) is a German conceptual artist. Life Olaf Nicolai grew up in Chemnitz (formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt) in the German Democratic Republic. From 1983 to 1988 he studied German language and literature at the u ...

, Udo Noll & Florian Wenz, Stanislas Nordey * O

Hélio Oiticica Hélio Oiticica (; July 26, 1937 – March 22, 1980) was a Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, painter, performance artist, and theorist, best known for his participation in the Neo-Concrete Movement, for his innovative use of color, and for ...

Gabriel Orozco Gabriel Orozco (born April 27, 1962) is a Mexican artist. He gained his reputation in the early 1990s with his exploration of drawing, photography, sculpture and installation. In 1998, Francesco Bonami called Orozco "one of the most influentia ...

* P

Adam Page Stephen Blake Woltz (born July 27, 1991), better known by his ring name "Hangman" Adam Page, is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a former AEW World Champion and ...

, Gérard Paris-Clavel, Marc Pataut,

Raoul Peck Raoul Peck (born 9 September 1953 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a Haitian filmmaker, of both documentary and feature films. He is known for using historical, political, and personal characters to tackle and recount societal issues and historical ...

, Marko Peljhan,

Michelangelo Pistoletto Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 23 June 1933) is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. His work mainly deals with the subject ma ...

Lari Pittman Lari George Pittman (born 1952 in Glendale, California) is a Colombian-American contemporary artist and painter. Pittman is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Painting and Drawing at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Early life ...

, Philip Pocock,

Emilio Prini Emilio Prini (1943 in Stresa – 1 September 2016 in Rome) was an Italian artist associated with the Arte Povera movement that began in the 1960s. Biography One of the early contributors to the Arte Povera movement living in Genoa in the 1960s ...

, Stefan Pucher * R Radio Mentale ( Eric Pajot & Jean-Yves Barbichon), David Reeb,

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary Germa ...

, Liisa Roberts * S

, Anne-Marie Schneider,

Jean-Louis Schoellkopf Jean-Louis Schoellkopf (born 1946) is a French photographer. Work Schoellkopf's work explores the problems that cities face with economic change, which have led to new arrangements of urban spaces, creating new ways of thinking and of living wit ...

, Thomas Schütte, Michael Simon,

Abderrahmane Sissako Abderrahmane Sissako (born 13 October 1961) is a Mauritanian-born Malian film director and producer. His film '' Waiting for Happiness'' (''Heremakono'') was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival official selection under Un Certain Regard, wi ...

, Alison Smithson & Peter Smithson, Alexander Sokurov,

Nancy Spero Nancy Spero (August 24, 1926 – October 18, 2009) was an American visual artist. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Spero lived for much of her life in New York City. She married and collaborated with artist Leon Golub. As both artist and activist, Nancy ...

, Wolfgang Staehle, Erik Steinbrecher,

Meg Stuart Meg Stuart (born 1965 in New Orleans) is an American choreographer and dancer who lives and works in Brussels and Berlin. Her company, Damaged Goods, operates from Brussels since 1994. Start as a dancer and choreographer Stuart moved to New York ...

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg Hans-Jürgen Syberberg (born 8 December 1935) is a German film director, whose best known film is his lengthy feature '' Hitler: A Film from Germany''. Early life Born in Nossendorf, Pomerania, the son of an estate owner, Syberberg lived un ...

* T

Slaven Tolj Slaven Tolj (born 14 April 1964) is a Croatian conceptual, performance, and media artist, curator, and cultural worker from Dubrovnik, Croatia. He achieved international recognition for his installations, body art, and performances presenting dis ...

, Tunga, Uri Tzaig,

* V Danielle Vallet Kleiner * W Martin Walde, Jeff Wall, Jianwei Wang,

Marijke van Warmerdam Marijke van Warmerdam (born 12 March 1959, Nieuwer-Amstel) is a Dutch artist. Biography Marijke van Warmerdam has been developing a characteristic body of work including film, photography, paintings and sculptures since the 1990’s. She is be ...

, Lois & Franziska Weinberger,

Franz West Franz West (16 February 1947 – 25 July 2012) was an Austrian artist. He is best known for his unconventional objects and sculptures, installations and furniture work which often require an involvement of the audience. Early life and e ...

Garry Winogrand Garry Winogrand (January 14, 1928 – March 19, 1984) was an American street photographer, known for his portrayal of U.S. life and its social issues, in the mid-20th century. Photography curator, historian, and critic John Szarkowski called Wino ...

, Eva Wohlgemuth / Andreas Baumann * Y Penny Yassour * Z Andrea Zittel,

Heimo Zobernig Heimo Zobernig (born 1958) is an Austrian artist who works in a variety of media from painting and sculpture to site specific installation and design. Education Zobernig attended the Academy of Fine Arts (Akademie der bildenden Künste), Vienna ...

References

{{Authority control Documenta 10 1997 in Germany 1997 in art