Artistic director Adam Szymczyk and his curatorial team prepare for documenta 14. A look behind the scenes of the institutional art world and a consideration of the role of contemporary art in a shifting global landscape.
EN
“The film’s mostly observational form means that Athiridis’s main intent is to document rather than cast explicit judgment; each viewer will come to their own conclusion as to how to assess Szymczyk and his decision to bring a German mega-exhibition to Greece just a few years after the latter’s sovereign debt crisis and subsequent political turmoil. One thing, however, is certain: through the grueling, multiyear process of making this happen, Szymczyk and his team show a sincere belief in art’s capacity to confront the darkest aspects of the past and present. They manifest a tenacious commitment to public transparency. On the street in Athens, someone has written that ‘documenta is the Botox of capitalism,’ calling out the expo as a gentrifying force, a promise of rejuvenation that is in fact an injection of toxins; Szymczyk, meanwhile, hears Brecht’s song and seeks to share it, even if it means going over budget, making a market-unfriendly exhibition with themes of colonialism, indigeneity, war, and migration at its heart. Athiridis’s record shows how critique and creativity can come from within the belly of the beast, without ever letting its viewer forget that there is a price to pay along the way.”
Erika Balsom1
“Cinema is always about emotions. In this film, there are emotions in the sense of drama and people who are fighting, struggling to overcome obstacles, and the usual emotions like fear, anger, anticipation, frustration, joy, etc. But there is a certain intellectual emotion that I was trying to capture. Something like the product of the intellectual or aesthetic process, which can also be manifested and felt in your body. What you feel when you read a poem or conceive an idea or invent something is also an emotion. I tried to speak about that. And Adam was very inspiring.”
Dimitris Athiridis2
- 1Erika Balsom, “The Party’s Over: Berlinale 2024,” Film Comment, 26 February 2024.
- 2Antoine Thirion, “From the Vision to the Nail in the Coffin, and the Resurrection: Dimitris Athiridis on ‘exergue – on documenta 14’,” Cinema Scope.
