DOCUMENTA AT CAPACITY? Artforum

Will Documenta 12's venues be too full? Der Standard reports that organizers of the quinquennial exhibition fear that next year's installment may be too crowded. According to D12 manager Bernd Leifeld, "the goal is: the visitor numbers from the last Documenta, plus one." Four years ago, Documenta 11 welcomed 650,000 visitors during its traditional hundred-day run. According to the paper, artistic director Roger-Martin Buergel wants to avoid a "folk festival situation," as D12's focus lies on education and mediation. "People should be able to engage with an artwork."

Buergel adds that each of the approximately one hundred selected artists has received their invitation. Many artists will be contributing older works along with new ones. "I want to see a few historical works alongside the new works made in Kassel, so that one can comprehend the artist's biography," said Buergel. The exhibition will also be "translocal." "Artists are working all over with similar problems," he said. "We are looking for relations that present the regional in a global way."

Buergel also has his eye on the art market. "We are an exhibition for contemporary art. Models are created here that will determine the art market for the next twenty, thirty years," he told the newspaper. "If we don't achieve that, we're dead."