documenta 12 magazines

How does documenta gain access to specific knowledge in the world? And how can it communicate this knowledge?

One possible approach was found with documenta 12 magazines. 18 months ago, about 90 publications with different formats, orientations and focuses, as well as art, culture and theory media from around the world were invited to think collectively about the motifs and themes of documenta 12. They actively took on the exhibition’s guiding questions, discussing them at editorial level and passing them on to writers and artists.

In the intervening period, this has generated over 300 articles, essays, interviews, commentaries, and illustrated essays. It has also created a space for exchange, debate, controversy, and translation - a many-layered "communication process that throws up a great deal of dust and issues we can use for the exhibition," as Roger M. Buergel puts it, "themes or priorities that were lying dormant and which we had not expected."

The material generated by the three issues leading up to the exhibition — Modernity?, Life!, and Education: — is intended to act as a navigation aid for readers and visitors to documenta 12.

documenta 12 magazines will continue to perform this function during the exhibition itself (in a separate section of the exhibition, a web journal, and a series of discussions and presentations).