dOCUMENTA 13: Three Invisible Works

Right after the entrance of the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, in a somptuous room where one would expect a big art statement, three works deal almost exclusively with bareness and immateriality.

Ryan Gander: I Need Some Meaning I Can Memorise, (The Invisible Pull) 2012

In a large room at the ground floor, left completely empty, a light breeze is blowing. The visitor experiences a physical presence while wondering if it is a natural or artificial phenomenon.

“Gander’s rhizomatic system of perception allows for various entry points but resist conclusive interpretation. He deconstructs terms and definitions in both a linguistic and a formal sense, while at the same time frustrating our desire for full accessibility, comprehensibility, or performativity”
Eva Scharrer

Airflow velocity study for I Need Some Meaning I Can Memorise (The Invisible Pull)

Kai Althoff (A letter to Artistic Director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev)

What artist Kai Althoff submitted to this edition of dOCUMENTA is a very withdrawal of submitting. A letter he sent to Artistic Director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is displayed in a vitrine, and it explains the reasons he decided not to take part to the exhibition(“life” was more important)

Ceal Floyer (#): ‘Til I Get It Right, 2005

‘Til I Get it Right is a sound piece the artist created digitally editing the original song with the same title by Tammy Wynette.

Cutting out the most part of the song, the artist leaves only a loop of the remaining “I just keep on / ’til I get it right” lines. (“watch” the video above)

According to the artist, the conceptual piece is to be read as it is, without any meaning beyond the literal, but Eva Schaffer wittily assumes: “one can’t help but understand the laconic line -sung with a silky voice but with the romance edited out, and gaining with the Sisyphean dimensions through merciless repetition- as a comment on the futility of trying to reach perfection as an artist, or of artistic production itself”