LOOKING AT A NEW/SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL DIMENSION IN ART
The central theme and ambition of Documenta 8, as formulated by last year's director Manfred Schnickenburger, might have enticed any visitor to expect great things of this major international exhibition. The focus of last year's Documenta, as Schnickenburger saw it, was what he perceived to be the most pertinent way of looking at the art of the last five years - the emergence of "a new historical and social dimension to art", In Documenta Press, one of the few publications available at the exhibition with some of its material printed in English, Schnickenburger further attempted to define the central premises of his exhibition. He spoke of
an art dealing with issues of common concern, an art about society: an art which is involved in the discourse with the present, and with the relationship of the present to the historical past ... an art which creates metaphors for social systems and models for social behaviours ... an art which takes its social and cultural context seriously and confronts itself with it at the same time.
Schnickenburger's concept for Documenta, at least as it is given here, is poised on a principle of optimism based on the notion that the art of the eighties could seek and successfully find new and fruitful definitions of its social position and relevance. Schnickenburger, and the four selectors who worked with him in framing and defining the exhibition attempted to play out this argument in two of the buildings which have been traditionally used as the site for Documenta - the neoclassical Fridericianum (an old museum burnt down in WWII, restored in 1953) and the late baroque Orangerie. Out of doors sculptural installations were also placed... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline