Documenta 14

Probably to most of you Athens is the city of the past: the Acropolis, the ancient ruins, the secular sculptures, the archaeological evidences…but that’s not all!
As a matter of fact Athens is a lively and dynamic city and it presents relevant creativity especially from a cultural perspective. This year, 2017, Athens hosts from the 8th of April to the 16th of July th Documenta Festival.

This famous German contemporary art exhibition has been held in the city of Kassel every four years since 1955. It started as an attempt to connect Germany with the rest of the world after the Second World War, and to launch an international dialogue about twentieth century art. Since then, the exhibition functioned not only as a collection and a presentation of contemporary art but also as a forum where innovative ideas and tendencies developed. This is the first time that Documenta was brought also outside of Germany, and Greece was chosen as a country in crisis, in order to see the effects of this crisis on the contemporary forms of art.

The exhibition takes place in seventeen different locations scattered around the city: public open spaces such as Victoria square, Kotzia square and Filopappou Hill, museums such as the Contemporary Art (EMST) one and the Museum of Islamic Art, and finally in the University’s buildings such as Athens School of Fine Arts and the Polytechnion.
Just to go through some of these, Victoria Square project is a social sculpture initiated by the artist Rick Lowe. It involves the participation of local communities, such as refugees and women’s groups, local businesses and other individuals and groups who collaborate in order to improve the cultural and historical asset of the neighborhood and to better understand the social and political dynamics of this area. Moving on to the Gennadius library, we can find a collection of books referring to the social, cultural and political life of the country during the 20th century as well as first Greek publications, maps and manuscripts and donation by the German archaeologist Schliemann and the urban historian Petropoulos.
However, the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), housed by the former Fix Brewery, is the most important exhibition venue of Documenta 14 in Athens, and it hosts works by 77 participants.

As you can see Documenta’s cultural offer is very rich and wide, and during the whole period of the exhibition you will surely find something that interest you! So don’t miss this great opportunity and check out the calendar of the exhibition and of the other events related to the festival on the following Documenta website