That’s how commercial the Documenta is
Visitors to the Documenta Hall have to go through a corrugated iron hut. She is for sale
Credit: AFP/ANTON ROLAND LAUB
Art is sold much more openly in Kassel than in previous editions of the documenta: in the Lumbung Gallery. The artists should primarily benefit from the mediation. A project from Kenya shows how.
MMeanwhile we know that “lumbung” is the Indonesian word for the rice barn where the surplus crops are stored and distributed for the benefit of the community. We also learned at this year’s Documenta that “nongkrong” is less about the production of art objects and more about the process of hanging around together, which only eventually leads to the creation of art.
And unfortunately we also had to realize in Kassel in 2022 that the relaxed atmosphere, the pseudo-transparent collective idea and all the social interaction did not prevent anti-Semitic “works of art” from being exhibited at “documenta fifteen”, although months before had been warned. To this day, the management of the Documenta, which is resistant to advice – primarily the general director Sabine Schormann and the chairman of the supervisory board Christian Geselle – refuses to take responsibility for it.
The institution of the documenta has been permanently damaged by the scandal after the opening and the behavior of those responsible. The many artists and collectives who exhibit in Kassel and are not under suspicion now also suffer from collateral damage. For example, a project called The Artists, which takes care of the marketing of art, has been invited.
Just because most of this year’s Documenta artists aren’t represented by a gallery or don’t play a role in the traditional art market doesn’t mean the Documenta wouldn’t be commercial. Art is sold much more openly than in previous editions: in the digital “Lumbung Gallery”, organized by The Artists.
Documenta: More money for the artists
Beat Raeber, one of the founders of the online platform, comes from the classic art trade, was a gallery owner and partner of RaebervonStenglin in Zurich for a long time (the gallery closed in 2016) and was a member of the Art Basel committee. Then he didn’t feel like standing around at art fairs anymore, but wanted to work more closely with the artists and develop new ideas to convey art.
On “The Artists” there are “curated selections”, for example the established market artist Gregor Hildebrandt presents the works of 16 of his students. The traditional fifty-fifty relationship between artist and dealer (they both share the proceeds from the sale of an artwork) is slightly skewed in The Artists’ favor. They get 60 percent, and a further five percent of the proceeds go into a community fund for the artists.
“We take 35 percent to operate the platform,” says Raeber in an interview with WELT AM SONNTAG. “But we are an association and non-profit.” He is concerned with the long-term support of the artists. “We want to show a wide range of contemporary art that is not necessarily represented in a gallery.” He liked the “Lumbung” principle, the idea of building a “horizontal ecosystem” for art. There are now many purchase inquiries. Both private collectors and large institutions are very interested in supporting the artists and their concerns.
Items for sale from the Wajukuu Art Project
Credit: AFP/ANTON ROLAND LAUB
For example, the Wajukuu Art Project is exhibiting at the Documenta. In 2004, a group of artists came together in a Nairobi slum to make their neighborhood of Mukuru, on the edge of an industrial area and a garbage dump, a better place for children and young people. Apart from becoming criminals, they often only had the opportunity to search the dump for salable items. The Wajukuu Art Project now not only teaches the young people how to make art from found material, but also contributes to mastering the daily challenges with collaborative educational offers.
With the help of the artists’ fees, Wajukuu was able to set up a wood workshop in Nairobi, says Raeber, in which better huts are built. In the “Lumbung Gallery” in Kassel, the project can continue to be supported by The Artists, with the aim that the artists can also make a living from art sales. In front of the Documenta hall in Kassel is a rusty corrugated iron installation by Wajika Kwetu, which is based on a slum hut in Kenya and could soon be in an art collector’s sculpture park: “When They Come to Our Place” costs 60,000 euros.