Trippers of the Light Fantastic. An Ethnographic Portrait of Kassel under the documenta 14

GABRIEL D. NOEL

Kassel

Conferencia; Vom Süden Lernen. Politische-Ästethische Impulse aus Lateinamerika; 2017

Universität Kassel - CALAS - DAAD - IDAES - Internationale und Intergesselschaftliche Beziehungen

For many years now the documenta has made the name of Kassel widely known throughout the Art literate world. And yet Kassel is a City in its own right besides and beyond the documenta. But what do we mean by City? When we are asked to think about a City we usually imagine a map or - if we live there - some landmarks or places important to us or to meaningful others. A city, however, is much more than that: it is an endlessly moving web of rythms, patterns, encounters and interactions between people - both residents and visitors - places, events, objects and situations, between the ordinary and the extraordinary. The documenta hosted by Kassel every five years provides an outstanding ocassion for a reflection on what a city is and, more specifically, on how the city of Kassel conceives, lives and performs its relationship to its (complex) self as well as to several kinds of  ´others´.