不是因為卡塞爾文獻展的關係，我可能不會抱著一種朝聖者的心態，來到卡塞爾。卡塞爾是德國黑森州的第三大城市，它最見著名的事物，除了被列入聯合國世界遺產的威廉高地公園之外，就要數卡塞爾文獻展了。
卡塞爾文獻展誕生於納粹政權倒台後的十年，即一九五五年。展覽從一開始就具有重新解放藝術的意味，展示了一大批在納粹時期無法展出的現代藝術作品，因此首屆展覽就吸引了十三萬的參觀人潮。此後，展覽基本上每五年舉辦一次，並逐漸演變為當代藝術的展示平台。
初到卡塞爾的傍晚，我跟著手機導覽軟件的指引，看到了歷年來文獻展保留在城市裡的眾多公共藝術。這些作品帶我深入卡塞爾的大街小巷，領略到這座花園城市壯麗的自然景觀。語音導覽裡除了介紹作品的含義和作者外，還刻意強調作者所參與過的文獻展的年份，從這段跨越年代的敘述中，我感受到了文獻展的歷史與份量，當年的先鋒藝術如今成為了卡塞爾重要的文化資產。
參觀文獻展的人流比我想像中要多得多，而且相當大的部分是老年夫妻以及攜帶小孩的家庭，但文獻展的內容卻難以稱得上老少咸宜。其中一件讓我非常震撼的作品來自華沙藝術家Artur Żmijewski，他的系列錄像拍攝著一個個健碩卻失去肢體的男性在鍛煉身體；在德國的語境當中，人們很容易聯想到戰爭對個體的殘害。這些讓人不忍直視的作品在文獻展中並不少見，它們來自第三世界，來自社會邊緣，來自被遺忘的歷史現場，它們露骨、尖銳、費解甚或簡陋，但讓我驚訝的是，數十萬計的人不遠千里而來，為的是面對作品對他們提出的質問。
這場沉重的思辯無疑是教人疲倦的，走出展覽的主會場弗里德里希阿魯門博物館，放眼廣場上宜人的園藝景致，觀眾也許得以喘一口氣。但事實上，就連廣場上長得平平無奇的一棵棵橡樹，都是來自藝術家介入社會的創作。一九八二年第七屆文獻展上，藝術家約瑟夫•波爾斯（Joseph Beuys）在廣場上種下了第一棵橡樹，此後五年，卡塞爾的街道上增添了七千棵這樣的橡樹，波爾斯用這一計劃推動著「城市森林化」的理想，他希望讓社會改良成為藝術，讓藝術為社會帶來正面的改變。
三十多年過去，那七千棵橡樹如今仍然惠澤著卡塞爾的城市居民和過路遊人。我不得不感嘆於藝術為這座城市帶來的改變，我也敬佩於文獻展六十多年來創造了這樣一個引發反思的場域，它餵養著新一代的人民，引領著歐洲當代的人文精神。走過歐洲不少歷史名城與聞名遐邇的美術館，我發現，倒是在卡塞爾這座小城，讓我真切體會到了歐洲人文的洗禮。
這屆文獻展還在弗里德里希廣場上重新建造了阿根廷藝術家瑪塔•米努欣（Marta Minujín）的作品《書之巴特農神殿》。這座建築遠看如同宏偉的巴特農神殿，但走近一看，堆砌起神殿外牆的，竟是十萬冊的書籍；如果再進一步了解，還會知道，這些書籍全是來自世界各地的禁書。這個作品的再現，詮釋了策展人對此屆展覽以及當下社會的寄語——是人的獨立思想和反思能力，建造了人類歷史上那些偉大而讓人心生嚮往的神殿。
原載於 C2文創誌 第二十三期
I may not have come to Kassel with a worship attitude if it is not Kassel Documenta. Kassel is the third largest city of Hesse State of Germany and it is most famous for Kassel Documenta in addition to Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe listed as a world heritage by UN.
Kassel Documenta was given birth ten years after Nazi regime collapsed, namely, in 1955. The exhibition was aimed to free arts again and modern works of art which could not be showcased during the Nazi period were exhibited, so the first exhibition attracted 130,000 visitors. After that, the exhibition is substantially held once every five years and had gradually developed as the exhibition platform for contemporary arts.
At the nightfall when I first arrived in Kassel, I was guided by the exhibition guide application on my cell phone to see numerous public works of art kept in the city because of the exhibition. These works led me to reach streets and alleys, experiencing splendid natural landscape of the garden city. In addition to introducing the meaning and creator, the voice guide software also emphasised the year when the creator presented his or her works at the exhibition. From the narration with a time span, I recognised that the history and importance of the exhibition and avant-garde arts many years before have become important cultural assets of Kassel.
Visitors of the exhibition were more than I imagined and most of them are old aged couples and parents bringing their children, but contents of the exhibition could not said to be suitable for persons at all age levels. One of the works greatly impressing me is the Warsaw artist Artur Żmijewski: his series videos record many strong but disabled men who were exercising. In the German context, people can easily imagine harm by war to individuals from such videos. These works I can’t stand the sight of are many at the exhibition; they are from the third world, edge of society and forgotten historical scene and undisguised, sharp, hard to understand or even simple, but what astonished me is that tens of thousands of people came to the exhibition from thousands of miles away just for the purpose of facing the query to them from the works.
Such serious speculation is undoubtedly boring and visitors may feel a little relaxed when they exited the main venue Museum Fridericianum and take a look at the pleasing garden landscape on the square. But actually even each oak tree with a plain shape on the square is a work of art created by an artist engaged in the society. At the 7th Kassel Documenta in 1982, the artist Joseph Beuys planted the first oak tree on the square and in five years after that 7,000 oak trees were planted on the streets in Kassel. Beuys promoted the ideal of “city foresting” by using such plan and he hoped to improve the society into a kind of art and improve the society with art.
Over thirty years later, those 7,000 oak trees still benefit Kassel’s citizens and tourists today. I can’t help being surprised by the change to the city from art and I also admired the field inspiring introspection which had been created by the exhibition over sixty years ago. It cultivated the new generation people and led Europe’s contemporary humanistic spirit. After viewing many historical cities and famous museums, I found that the small city of Kassel made me truly experienced the true European culture and history.
For the exhibition, the Argentina artist Marta Minujín’s work The Parthenon of Books was rebuilt on Friedrich Square. The building is like the grand Parthenon when seen from a long distance away, but when seen closely it consists of the walls even built with one-hundred thousand books. If you have interest in further study the work, you would know that all of these books are banned ones from all over the world. The representation of the work interpreted the curator’s message about the exhibition and current society – human beings’ independent thoughts and introspection capability build those great and impressive temples in human history.
Source: C2 Issue 23