Overcoming obstructions at Documenta 12

Images: exhibition guard at Documenta 12 in Kassel...

My favorite was a film titled “Them” (2007) by Artur Žmijewski shown at the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof. Four groups of Polish activists painted their most precious symbols on a big paper: The older ladies paint a church, the right-wing nationalists draw the sword with a national flag, the Jews paint "Poland" written in Hebrew, the leftists the word "Freedom". When finished, all groups are allowed to change the content in the images the other groups have done (a kind of exquisite corpse method). The socialists start by cutting out the sword of the nationalists. The nationalists take their revenge by covering the word “freedom” with paint, which makes the socialists furious (how can you paint over "freedom"?). Soon every detail of the four images is destroyed in some way, while the participants are trembling with anger and shouting to each other. The church ladies scream about tolerance. The participants end up cutting up each other's T-shirts and setting the 'works of the enemy' on fire... This film should be a part of the curriculum at the primary schools!

Some years ago (when I had a hard time with myself once again) I tried feeding “overcoming obstructions” to the search robot and encountered the concept of Le parkour (free-running). It’s like graffiti made of a moving body… These young men were performing outside Neue Pavilion at the 12th Documenta in Kassel. Nice!