WINTER SEMESTER 18/19

Kassel is the city of documenta, one of the world’s most important exhibitions of contemporary art. The lively discussion currently taking place as part of the “Kassel Cultural Concept”—which explores how Kassel, as the city of documenta, can continue to develop as an “art city” even between documenta events—serves as the starting point for this semester project.

Based on the call by experts who view “a return to the documenta motif as a Kassel achievement and Beuys’s idea of ‘Social Sculpture’ as a unifying narrative for Kassel’s future cultural development” (call from the 3rd Culture Workshops in April 2018), as well as the articulated need for workspaces and exhibition spaces for artists, the students will develop programmatic and spatial visions of a “hybrid urban building block” for the documenta city of Kassel and contribute to this exciting discourse.

Based on the students’ individual perspectives on the documenta city of Kassel—with its specific qualities, locations, offerings, and narratives—selected characteristics/elements/… of the “genius loci” will be transformed into a hybrid building structure.

The design process will begin with a short “warm-up” project and will be structured and guided step by step. As part of the project work, students are encouraged to work “by any means necessary”—using algorithms and straws, analog and digitally fabricated models, images, films, sounds, and language. Design through “learning by doing.”

The goal is to use the developed projects to spark discussion about the potential appeal of the selected locations and programs for the sustainable development of a future “Art City” Kassel.

Kassel is home to documenta, one of the world’s most important exhibitions of contemporary art. We asked ourselves how the “spirit” of each edition of documenta was translated into public space and what traces this “spirit” has left behind in the city of Kassel.

The seminar serves as a complementary, in-depth exploration of the project work.

Each student focused on one edition of documenta and one permanent documenta artwork.

The goal is to capture the “spirit” of each documenta and its manifestation in the city and to translate this into a city map.