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100 notebooks for dOCUMENTA

Art, Books, Graphic Design

Posted by Mark Sinclair, 25 May 2012, 12:43    Permalink    Comments (3)

Over a year in the making, the 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts notebook project has published its final volume to coincide with the opening of the thirteenth dOCUMENTA art festival in Germany next month...

The notebooks are compiled from facsimiles of handwritten notes, artists' books and essays by 100 writers, artists, scientists, philosophers and theorists whose work has a thematic connection to the forthcoming dOCUMENTA festival. Since 1955 the event has taken place every five years in Kassel, based largely in the city's Fridericianum museum.

Designed by Italian studio Leftloft the notebooks have been published by Hatje Cantz since March last year and are available in three different formats: A6 (€4), A5 (€6) and B5 (€8). The printed notebooks range from 16 to 48 pages in length and are also available as e-book editions.

Each of the notebooks contains a frontispiece and when arranged together they produce a range of images, including a 1941 photograph of the Fridericianum (shown below) and views of Wilhelm Loth's installation at dOCUMENTA III in 1964.

Leftloft also designed the identity and website for this year's dOCUMENTA (13), which runs from June 9 until September 16. See d13.documenta.de.

The series was commissioned by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, artistic director of dOCUMENTA (13) and agenct and curator Chus Martinez, the festival's head of department. The series editor is dOCUMENTA (13) head of publications, Bettina Funcke.

3 Comments

I have just been onto the website to find out a little more about dOCUMENTA (13). I was quite overwhelmed by the huge amount of content and the site is very easy to use from a Usability perspective.

Oh yeah the notebooks are really interesting but the website is the true window to this event, and a much better medium for understanding the complex nature event and what it means to the artists participating in it.

What do you think?
Stuart Rutter
2012-05-26 09:03:06


I love love love everything there is about this series. Kudos and hurrahs to Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, artistic director of dOCUMENTA, curator Chus Martinez, the festival's head, and series editor Bettina Funcke. Absolutely lovely that each has a frontispiece when arranged together renders a range of images ... love the 1941 photograph of the Fridericianum.
daniG
2012-06-15 16:07:59


I found dOCUMENTA a true success. Beautifully currated, with main themes strongly present in each work, but not so obvious, so that it constantly makes you think. I loved the works of Mauri, videos of Mariam Ghani and Nalini Malani, 'cries' of Anna Boghiguian, was mesmerized in room with aboriginal reflections by W. Tjapaltjarri, Julie Mehretu... actually list is too long...
ninichissima
2012-07-17 08:58:48


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