Opening Salon des Refusés
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The Salon des Refusés is officially opened: Every Wednesday, the documenta 12 advisory board will host a forum for people to share their experiences of unemployment, in the monumental architecture of the former police headquarters. The programme has evolved gradually, with some ideas having already been scrawled by hand onto a large notice board; for example, “What people live on (slide show)”, or the slogan “The solidaric economy”, or “Alternative forms of work, e.g. taking a sabbatical from paid employment”. And just as the forum’s agenda was cobbled together haphazardly, so too was the office equipment. “We could also use a telephone directory”, commented a member of the advisory board to Ayşe Güleç.
Ayşe Güleç, spokeswoman for the documenta 12 Advisory Board, reported on how over the past two weeks the members have endeavoured to expunge from their minds any associations with the building’s National Socialist history. The Board opted for a central room, which along with the adjoining hallway is painted white. Together with the Ai Weiwei-style white tables and benches, which until recently were used to furnish the temporary canteen for the 1001 Chinese in the courtyard of the Gottschalkhallen, they have succeeded in defying the ghosts of its brutal past and in lending the Salon an open and congenial ambience.
The French name is a subtle and stylish reference to the art exhibitions of the same name staged in Paris in the second half of the 19th century: The group of Paris-based Avantgarde artists, whose paintings were not selected by the jury for exhibition in the then world renowned Salon de Paris, and accordingly marked with the letter ‘R’, mounted a protest exhibition to stage their works, called the Salon of the Rejected. In an affirmation of this defiant gesture, documenta 12 has named its rooms after them, thus self-confidently demonstrating its appreciation of the problem of rising unemployment and the precarious situation on the labour market.
Just as Realism and Impressionism sought to offer new ways of representing reality, the documenta 12 Advisory Board is endeavouring to capture its perception of Kassel’s reality by broaching controversial issues. For Güleç the current state of society is also an expression of the “crisis of Modernity”. The Kassel Salon des Refusés now serves as a “centre of cultural and political self-education“ and is open to anyone interested in this subject. Jürgen Hinrichs closed his excellent inaugural speech with the words “The Rejected invite you”. And over a selection of assorted sandwiches and sparkling wine the discussions continued.
The French name is a subtle and stylish reference to the art exhibitions of the same name staged in Paris in the second half of the 19th century: The group of Paris-based Avantgarde artists, whose paintings were not selected by the jury for exhibition in the then world renowned Salon de Paris, and accordingly marked with the letter ‘R’, mounted a protest exhibition to stage their works, called the Salon of the Rejected. In an affirmation of this defiant gesture, documenta 12 has named its rooms after them, thus self-confidently demonstrating its appreciation of the problem of rising unemployment and the precarious situation on the labour market.
Just as Realism and Impressionism sought to offer new ways of representing reality, the documenta 12 Advisory Board is endeavouring to capture its perception of Kassel’s reality by broaching controversial issues. For Güleç the current state of society is also an expression of the “crisis of Modernity”. The Kassel Salon des Refusés now serves as a “centre of cultural and political self-education“ and is open to anyone interested in this subject. Jürgen Hinrichs closed his excellent inaugural speech with the words “The Rejected invite you”. And over a selection of assorted sandwiches and sparkling wine the discussions continued.
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The Salon des Refusés is also to play host to thematically relevant projects devoted to other aspects of documenta 12: The art mediator Nanne Buurmann, for example, will use this venue to stage her workshop “The Unemployed as the Avantgarde“, in reference to the book entitled “The East Germans as the Avantgarde“ by the sociologist Wolfgang Engler: Together with groups of five unemployed people from Leipzig and Kassel respectively, who are interested in art and in reflecting upon the nature of employment or unemployment, she will devise a concept for public events. Although unwilling at this juncture to reveal the details, she is planning to consult with the participants in a three-day workshop at the end of August to find appropriate formats.
Under the title “One’s Own Life”, the art mediator Tina Oberleitner is inviting 10 people willing to draw on their everyday experiences to engage in a debate on “Labour and Unemployment”. Serving as the inspiration for the workshop is one of the three leitmotifs of documenta 12, namely “what is bare life?”
Salon des Refusés, former Police Headquarters, Königstor 31, Kassel
Under the title “One’s Own Life”, the art mediator Tina Oberleitner is inviting 10 people willing to draw on their everyday experiences to engage in a debate on “Labour and Unemployment”. Serving as the inspiration for the workshop is one of the three leitmotifs of documenta 12, namely “what is bare life?”
Salon des Refusés, former Police Headquarters, Königstor 31, Kassel
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