documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH

documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH is a non-profit organization supported by the City of Kassel and the State of Hesse as shareholders.

The company organizes and realizes the periodic documenta exhibitions and operates the Fridericianum, the documenta archiv, and the documenta Halle. Under the umbrella of documenta gGmbH, the individual institutions realize exhibitions and events, conduct research, and communicate as well as archive the knowledge produced in the context of documenta. The International Friends of documenta e. V. brings together arts enthusiasts who wish to support the work of documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH.

What began in 1955 in the Fridericianum, at that time still alongside the Federal Garden Show, is today a series of exhibitions of contemporary art that attracts worldwide attention. Founded by Arnold Bode, documenta opened for the first time in Kassel on July 15, 1955. A total of 15 editions of documenta have taken place since then. documenta 16 is currently in preparation and will open in Kassel in 2027.

In 1955, the Kassel painter and academy professor Arnold Bode attempted to bring Germany back into a dialog with the world after the end of the Second World War through a "presentation of the art of the twentieth century" and to include it in the international art scene. With the help of the "Gesellschaft Abendländischer Kunst des XX. Jahrhunderts e. V.", which he founded, he presented Classical Modernism, which had been defamed as degenerate by the National Socialists, in the initially provisionally renovated Museum Fridericianum.

An enormous backlog of information prompted 130,000 visitors to come to Kassel for this exhibition, which was both a retrospective and a forum for contemporary art. Encouraged by the unexpected success, Bode planned a second exhibition for 1959 and thus installed the exhibition cycle of the Kassel documenta, which has been organized since 1959 by a limited liability company with the shareholders City of Kassel and the State of Hesse. Until documenta 4 in 1968, Arnold Bode, together with art historians such as Werner Haftmann, Will Grohmann, Werner Schmalenbach and Max Imdahl, directed the exhibition, which increasingly became a seismograph of current art developments. The Nazi past of some of these protagonists, especially Werner Haftmann, is the subject of scholarly debate at documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH and its institutions.

In its respective exhibitions and artistic practices, documenta reflects the political and social events of the time. The influence of art historians born before the Second World War on documenta and the reception of art in the post-war period ended in 1972 with a generational and structural change: the Swiss Harald Szeemann was appointed "General Secretary" of documenta 5 by an international jury. Since documenta 10, a newly composed Finding Committee has appointed a new artistic director for each exhibition on behalf of the supervisory board of documenta gGmbH. Influential personalities from the international art scene have subsequently taken on the role of curating a documenta exhibition on the basis of their individual profile

documenta 16 will take place from June 12 to September 19, 2027 in Kassel.

In December 2024, Naomi Beckwith was appointed Artistic Director of documenta 16 by the international selection committee. She has announced her core team: An ensemble of Carla Acevedo-Yates, Romi Crawford, Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro and Xiaoyu Weng will work with Beckwith to develop the exhibition, publications and programming of documenta 16.

Naomi Beckwith is Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in New York. There she oversees collections, exhibitions, publications, curatorial programs and archives and is jointly responsible for the strategic direction within the international network of affiliated museums. Previously, she held curatorial positions at the MCA Chicago and the Studio Museum in Harlem. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Beckwith has (co-)organized renowned exhibitions and monographic projects, including the award-winning exhibition Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen (2018, MCA Chicago, USA) and The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now (2015, MCA Chicago, USA). She was a member of the curatorial team for the realization of the exhibition Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America (2021, The New Museum, New York), conceived by Okwui Enwezor before his death. Her exhibitions, lectures and publications focus on the impact and resonance of Black culture on multidisciplinary practices in global contemporary art. A scholar and art historian, Beckwith has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (both Chicago, US). She has received fellowships at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program (New York) and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia (US).  Beckwith was awarded the 2024 David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (US).

Social Responsibility

As the organizer of a contemporary art exhibition with global reach, and in all other tasks it performs, documenta is particularly committed to ensuring social participation while observing the principles of fairness, transparency, and plurality of opinion. It is committed to a culture of discourse and debate in line with these principles. With its exhibitions, events, projects, and publications, it offers spaces for critical discourse on global issues from the present, future, and past in a contemporary art environment. documenta is firmly rooted in a an open-minded society and as, an institution, acts in a non-partisan manner within it.

Sustainability

documenta recognizes sustainability as a guiding principle of its actions. In its activities, it pursues the goal of resource-conserving action based on cost-benefit efficiency, keeping all social, ecological, and economic aspects of sustainability in mind at all times. documenta pursues an efficient and mindful approach to the essential foundations of human life at all levels of action and work.