Commoning in Kassel
dOCUMENTA (13) has historically insisted on emphasizing the role that art and culture can play in any society in reconsidering and re-perceiving the world we inhabit. Art may have something to teach, something to show, something to say, something to hide, something to resist . . . But what are artists doing today, what kinds of concerns do they bring to the table, from where do these concerns emerge, and where may they take us?
The experimental public programs of AND … AND … AND attempt to interweave and connect questions emerging from different parts of the world and to activate them during the time of the exhibition in Kassel. Those questions cannot simply be brought in on an alien ship. They emerge from the region, the local soil and in some cases require the planting of seeds for ideas to take shape, for relations to develop, for a plane of consistency to take hold. This needs to happen in a non-authoritarian and non-authorial space that cannot be the work of any one artist or individual. In this way AND … AND … AND is constructed collectively and will only hold between and in the midst of a multiplicity of bodies.
In addition to the individuals who will build up this common frame, AND … AND … AND will rely on the following three broad headings to build up some further consistency among the positions:
Revocation—This term means to introduce critical relations to existing forms of thinking, working, acting, doing, and living.
The Common(s)—What is it that we are capable of sharing and can we construct a common space or a common time for thinking about common concerns?
Non-Capitalist Life—Why is it easier to imagine the destruction of the planet than an end to Capitalism? Can we explore together the potential for non-capitalist life? What does it look like, sound like, feel like, move like, taste like?
Each of these categories connects the broad group of practices and individuals involved and have emerged from the questions encountered in the series of events leading up the dOCUMENTA (13) since June of 2010.
