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”Organ Kritischer Kunst (OKK, Berlin) Team hasresearched the new waves of the ArtEstablishment in the “probably most creative cityin the world (at least in the continental part ofEurope)” as manifested by the Berlin Biennale 7(BB7; 27.04-01.07). OKK hosted the evententitled "2012 IS THE SEASON FOR TREASON"parallel to the BB7 (27.04-13.05) in order toexpose the outcomes of their research into thebiennale, but also to provide the space fordiscussion of the crypto-fascist ideology andtactics in the broader social context. On Friday20th July, OKK presentation Biennialization ofPolitical Art will draw on their 2012 IS THESEASON FOR TREASON and specify itsrelationship to the dOCUMENTA (13), which iscurrently occupying the city of Kassel.

from POT press release about the Rosa LuxemburgStiftung Hessen event “Biennialization of Political

Art”

1) “Borderless” documentaAccording to dOCUMENTA (13) curator CarolynChristov-Bakargiev, the Italians are coming backto this largest German contemporary art festivalin 2012, after somewhat little presence of thisnationality in the recent shows. Apparently theyare coming back with a full blast in the style of1930s! Sadly, both Berlin Biennale 7 anddOCUMENTA (13) rely on the nationalist andethnic conceptions of identity. Simultaneously,Italian presence in documenta is the very elementwhich allows this anti-concept concept re-conquest Afghanistan (2012 documenta takesplace in Kassel, Germany; Cairo, Egypt; Banff,Canada and Kabul, Afghanistan). CarolynChristov-Bakargiev is an Italian and Americanwriter, art historian and curator, sportingphilosophy suitable for German domestic andforeign cultural policies. According to EmilyNathan from artnet.com:

One might wonder why on earth CarolynChristov-Bakargiev, the curator of Documenta(13) in Kassel, Germany, June 9-Sept. 16, 2012,would choose to hold two years of art lectures andworkshops in the war-torn country ofAfghanistan. The Afghan Seminars, as they arecalled, took place between 2010 and 2012 incollaboration with the Goethe-InstitutAfghanistan, the Afghanistan Center at KabulUniversity and a host of other cultural institutions-- and considering the current conditions of thecountry’s social and political landscape, such adecision might seem naive, or even dangerous.

1

Ironically, the very personality who was usedin order to let documenta expand through Germanborders is probably the most globally famouscontemporary art curator with a background inAfrica. Nigeria-born Okwui Enwezor was the starof dOCUMENTA (11) in 2002. Enwezor is a sonof a businessman, a probable reason for his class-determined understanding of post-colonialinternational relations which had made way for“non-occidental” cultures forming the core of thewhole show.2 While this might sound positive orin some way progressive, “the ultimatecosmopolitan” seems to have internalized theconcept of art with its typical colonialist bias.Formulaic “phenomenon” of similar basis isdescribed in Roger Taylor's 1978 book “Art, anEnemy of the People”, where author speaks aboutthe historical founding of Jazz:

I have now said something about the socialcontext in which a certain social project was lived

out. A set of simplifying contrasts help to clarifymy meaning. Being white, an encapsulated inNew Orleans social experience, was bringingblackness into whiteness, and thereby obtainingsome release from being white, but at the sametime not being black and remaining white. Theproject was contradictory, it was to be white, butnot be white and to be black, but not be black (allof this from the standpoint of those who werewhite), it was to bring blackness into whiteness asa whiteness but at the same time that whichentered as a whiteness had to be a blackness.3

So, why is documenta in Afghanistan? Back toChristov-Bakargiev, the curator attempts to relateher own present privileged living conditions withthe bright days of 1970s in Kabul, when her“native” Alighiero Boetti owned a hotel togetherwith his Afghani business partner GholamDastaghir. It seems that the whole “empathy” ofdocumenta starts and ends with the businessinterests in an occupied country, whichinfamously hosted numerous European andAmerican junkie communities in the 1960s and70s. Christov-Bakargiev creates no contradictionwhen, in the name of Afghani artists, she boastsof a necessity to “radically imagine” thatoccupation does not exist! It is the internationalbourgeois who live in a Derrida-like “post-structural”, “borderless” post-colonial space: itgoes without saying that such art events justifythe imprisonment and torture of innumerablepeople who struggle to practically live-out thisglobalism both Christov-Bakargiev and Enwezorclaim to exist for everyone. For the curators, justlike for Jacques Derrida, truth only exists in text.Somewhat symmetrical to this is racial profilingexercised by the German state, where “crimestatistics” provide justification for dailyharassment of the non-white residents. Again,Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev: “In the 1990s, Iliked to work with the concepts of ‘center’ and‘periphery’ because then they were new andhelped to structure the discussion. Today, I don’tuse these terms any more—they became toofashionable and got a false tone.”4

Alighiero Boetti, the “Poor Art” star of themost recent documenta, was “fascinated with theother cultures”, he spent a long time living inAfghanistan. An outcome of this is present inFriedricianum, one of the main dOCUMENTA(13) venues in Kassel city, in the form of yet-another Boetti's carpet-maps entitled “Mappa”.The artist employed numerous female weavers ofKabul in order to produce “his” world politicalmaps over the years of 1971 to 1994. AlighieroBoetti's “use of an element of chance” is widelyspoken about. Interestingly, this “chance” is acalculated one: while it is difficult to track downthe reason for employer failing to provide hisemployees with correct materials (for exampleblue string for the colouring of the oceans inItalian's maps), yellow or pink parts of the worldwaters are treated as an explainable phenomenon:supposedly, Kabul locals have never seen water intheir lives, neither do they have any idea ofmapping: "Boetti loved this intrusion of chanceinto the design and from then on left it to themakers to choose which colour to use for theseas," Tate said in its guide to the Boetti show,which ran from February 28 till May 27 2012 inTate Modern.

Overall, is it not such “other culture” basedtreatment of Kabul weavers that makes “Boetti's”work “outstanding”? The following quote allows

us to leave this Bakargiev championed hopelessyet lucky bourgeois loser aside:

“(...) final self portrait, and his [Boetti's] firstwork using cast bronze, is an image of theartist holding a hose that sprays water onto hishead. Because the head is heated, the waterboils on contact creating a cloud of steam andportraying Boetti as a thinker with so manyideas that he needs to cool himself down.”5

2) The personal & the politicalAt this point I would like to mention somethingof a little importance to most of thedOCUMENTA (13) visitors. My friend Habibileft Afghanistan, a country where he was born,and Kabul, the city where his relatives stillreside, a good few years ago. Having travelledthrough Turkey and the Balkans, Habibi met anetwork of activists and simply empatheticpeople who made his long way to Berlin easier.They also provided Habibi with practical supportever since, even to the extent of his Afghanifriends expressing suspicion. To my surprise, inthe recent months Habibi himself took an activepart in the actions of networks who providevoluntary practical support for refugees inGermany.

Unfortunately, Habibi's involvement with anti-racist activities is what got him back to therefugee camp, one of those prisons Habibi wassent to the prievious time my friend had beenpoliced. Yet again, Habibi has been put behindbars for a very “personal” reason, which is hisskin color: The police demanded my friend'sidentification papers in the train station ofThuringian city (150 km away from Kassel;Kassel is in the land of Hesse – former WestGermany, Hesse is bordering the territory ofThuringia, former GDR). It is not spoken openlyenough about the fact that German state still usesthe historically infamous method of racialprofiling in their hunt for “illegal” immigrants.On March 27, 2012, the administrative court ofKoblenz, in Western Germany, dismissed a

AABBOOUUTT RREETTRROO FFUUTTUURRIISSTTIICC EEUURROOPPEEAANN CCOOLLOONNIIAALLIISSMM OOFF DDOOCCUUMMEENNTTAA ((1133)) by Chus Martinez XIII

complaint by a black German man who was askedto show his papers while travelling by train. Thejudges ruled that skin color was reasonablegrounds on which to carry out ID checks – thisruling made way for further police aggression onurban and regional transportation in Germany.6Simultaneously, it has been about 7 years sinceOury Jalloh, a political refugee from SierraLeone, died in a fire in a police cell in Dessau –another case not yet resolved by the justiceapparatus of Germany.

On the other hand, Carolyn Christov-Bakargievand dOCUMENTA (13) relate uneasily to the20th century feminist slogan that “Personal isPolitical”. While it doesn't make much sense toadd up the numbers of personally or politicallymotivated works in the whole of 2012 documenta,it is worth mentioning the fact that Kabul studentswho took part in German art program inrelationship with the same art fair were advised todraw on their personal experiences,and not to go into the sphere ofpolitics, most of whom reportedlyaccepted a full package ofEurocentric subject/object division:

Unfortunately, [Chus] Martinez[the “agent” of dOCUMENTA(13)] launched the three-hourevent in Kassel with a disclaimerof sorts, a declaration that eachparticipant would share his or her“personal experiences” of theAfghan program, and would not,presumably, address the complexpolitical, moral and ethicalquestions it involves. Mostspeakers followed suit, describinghow grateful they were for theresources Documenta hadprovided and what they hadlearned.7Somewhat of the clearest

statement as to the justification of documenta'srecent expansionism into Afghanistan is spelledout in the article entitled “dOCUMENTA (13)”published in the “Afghan Scene”8:

Especially in times of war, or in post-conflictconditions, art can be a form of healing. ArtePovera artist Alighiero Boetti from Turin, Italy,visited Kabul in early 1971, and decided toopen a hotel called One Hotel on Shar-e-Nawnear Chicken Street, together with an Afghancalled Gholam Dastahir. He spent half the yearthere, commissioning his embroidered Mappefrom 1971 to 1977. The initial impulse fororganizing a part of dOCUMENTA inAfghanistan came from imagining not thescenario of war, but rather a form of continuitybetween the vibrant and international life ofthe 1970s in Kabul, during the time Boettispent there, and our own times, rejecting thestate of exception that is determined by the war,and choosing to act hosme—that is, as if thesituation were not what it is, as if thecheckpoints, cement walls, and barriers, theconflict, occupation, and militarization inKabul, did not exist—through acts of radicalimagination, all the while continuing the dailylife required by and inevitable while living in amilitarized zone.This quoted article already in its form blatantly

demystifies its “unquestionably” empathetic oregalitarian stance. Furthermore, while the authorsof the feature are supposedly both “CarolynChristov-Bakargiev and Golare Kiazand”, the lastfew paragraphs expose something of a differentnature:1. (…) and I also felt that the international art

world and artists could learn and profit from

this cultural exchange [dOCUMENTAprogram in Afghanistan] (...)

2. My experience was that there [in Afghanistan]is an interest in contemporary art and culture(…)

3. I hope that the alliances and connectionscreated between artists in Afghanistan andartists in other parts of the world throughdOCUMENTA have a positive impact in thelong term.

Here I would like to pose a question: is that a formof magic on Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev'sbehalf? (quoted statements have clearly comefrom her camp; nevertheless, the curator usessubject ”I”, but the authorship is attributed to twopersons)

3) The “retreat”Marketing of dOCUMENTA (13) relies on areserved colour scheme, dominated by the bright

yellow and accompanied by pastel tones of blueand green – the decision somewhat reflectingGiorgio Morandi's output. Morandi style fitsdOCUMENTA brand perfectly: while VeniceBiennial is denounced for its never-ending partiesand Art Basel constitutes a “commercial” art fair,documenta is shrouded in a smoke of seriousnessand modesty. Ever since its foundation, this artfair was meant to “heal” a broken society of post-war Germany. Started out as an annexe to thebourgeois horticultural show in the city of Kasselin 1955, the art festival was meant to show artformerly deemed “degenerate” by the Nazi party.Nevertheless, the fact that documenta wasinitiated at the same year as the German militarywas officially recreated and accepted into NATO(1955; with Kassel as one of the most importantarms industry hubs in Germany), is ratherstriking.9

Most of the show is produced with the samecolour scheme like its marketing. Having spent agood part of the day in documenta, this could bealso said about its contents. Humour entirelyabsent, eroticism was positioned in a suspiciouslyclose proximity to both: Italian fascist star of theshow Giorgio Morandi and the portrait of AdolfHitler, therefore rendering one of the very fewerotic impulses of the art fair - images featuringthe Vogue correspondent Lee Miller herself –entirely unattractive. Furthermore, Anna TeixeiraPinto, in her review for Art Agenda points to thelack of seriously analytical contributions todocumenta10, those which would have beencapable of consciously deconstructing languageand the “rationalism” which led to the creation ofnuclear warfare, the problem continuouslyscrutinized in the works of Gustav Metzger.

Instead, the nature and man inflicted disasters areput side by side by the Bakargiev curatorial“everything goes as long as it fits German culturalpolicy” concept, where on the one hand war isjustified by the supposedly universal human deathinstinct, and on the other art is granted“uebermench” qualities by its un-historicalappearance in the form of “energy”11, which on itsown behalf leads towards the “ecology of spirit”in the form of German Nazi founded Volkswagen“motto's”12.

Poor curatorial decisions fit well with theglorification of “Poor Art”. Alighiero Boetti hasbeen historicized into the poor Italian art circle,but another hero of 2012 documenta, GiorgioMorandi, is also another artist related to the ArtePovera (in 2009 his paintings decorated the USWhite House, while Alighiero Boetti was featuredin the world's largest art museums in 2012:MOMA NYC and London Tate Modern, Giorgio

Morandi's legacy was exhibited in MOMA in2001, in New York Metropolitan Museum in2008, and others). Reviews of 2005 YaleUniversity Press published Janet Abramowicz's“Giorgio Morandi: the Art of Silence”13 state theartist's relationship with Arte Povera movement:

“An epic account covering five decades ofMorandi's life that breaks new ground. . . .Abramowicz should receive the highest praisefor daring to do what other art historians haverepeatedly denied: she unabashedly linksMorandi as both artist and person to hispredecessors, contemporaries, anddescendants, arguing that 'it was in[Morandi's] room that the real arte poverabegan.”—Jennie Hirsh, CAA Reviews

While it seems that this very book inspired theinclusion of Morandi into the concept ofdOCUMENTA (13) and its “subsequent”justification for the show's presence in Kabulthrough Morandi's association with Arte Povera,it is striking that Carolyn Christoph-Bakargievstates the following:

With her Documenta, Bakargiev seems to bepositioning artists as suffering something akinto the trials of Job, acknowledging thecontradictions of making art in the face of war,and choosing to pursue symbols of creativitywhen surrounded by destruction. “For me,”she concluded, “the image of Morandi sittingin his studio painting vases, one after the other,with Fascism all around him -- that is what artcan do14Christov-Bakargiev, herself “one of the world's

leading authorities on post-war Italian art andculture” associates Morandi with Povera butnevertheless whitewashes his fascist past. To my

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the “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) and subsequent “loss” of evidence aboutthe serial killing executed by these neo-nazi fanatics and the security services incollaboration over the years. Therefore it is my suggestion that Habibi's situation isrelated to both: the state protection of NSU and simultaneously to the “no-concept”ideology of dOCUMENTA (13) curated by Carolyn Chistoph-Bakargiev. To conclude, I would like to repeat myself in saying that Heideggerian dwelling inorder to restore “authentic” social and psychological “peace” must be severelyattacked by the deconstruction of the monumentally serious (or “alternativelymodern”) culture, which is not antagonistic towards fascist versions of capitalism aspresented at dOCUMENTA (13), but instead tightly, but obscurely woven together:art is a historical construct which has a historical and very material function – that ofsocial glue.

Instead of absorbing everything into universally “acceptable” sphere of“participatory” contemporary art, I propose the critical distancing from such art fairsand autonomizing of negative in art, in order to counter the possibility andvanguardism of such chauvinistic (like Berlin Biennale 7) or subliminally speculative(like dOCUMENTA 13) propaganda weapons. These simply provide a moral safetyvalve for the continuing North-Western psycho-colonial expansionism (i.e.whitewash) in general and gentrification (in case of Berlin) or arms trade (in case ofKassel) in particular. Knowing these processes documenta's motto of “collapse and

recovery” makes much more “sense”...

Chus Martinez XIII

Oury

today – July 28th, 2012 is the anniversary of thedeath of Isidore Isou and the founding of theSituationist International and founding day ofREproductiVe wOrkers and Lovers indUsTrIalunion.here is a little bedtime story as comment ondeclaration that “baker cannot leave her bakery”:

so the baker leaves the shop and goes off toother work...but she still bakesfor herselfmaybe for her fellow workersmaybe she ends up working in a kitchen(that is not exclusively for baking...)

is the baker the same as the shop?can she refuse being a baker and still bake?can she refuse baking and still be a baker?why bake? to resist hunger? for herself? to feedothers?how does she fight hunger? how can she ignorestarvation all around her?

to be a bakershe must by definition identify with other

peoplewho share her passions

she wants to bake better than everbut comes across lots of problems inorganisation and production

some other bakers make free kitchens for thehomeless and poorshe loves this but encounters many of the sameshortcomings as the bakery

in particular she cannot attack her enemy:starvation

she sees many bakers around her have a verylimited idea of bakingand bread and cake and ovenand food and eatingshe travels around the world meeting otherbakers who use different methods of baking

she notices that all workers are in a union -except some like soldiers and bakersshe wonders why is this?

she talks with other bakers in her shop and inother shops

she sees that unions are local and nationalbut seldom acheive international structureand she knows that starvation kills thousandsof people every daybut mostly in other countriesshe sees that other people who cook food arealso not in unions

she decides to re-define her own productionand unionise with workers who produce foodin other ways

she has "one in the oven" (an englishexpression for being pregnant")the anarchists say "we don't want bread - wewant the bakery"

maybe she seeks the society where it is possibleto bake in the morning, to eat in theafternoon, shit in the evening, kill afterdinner... without ever becoming baker, fucker,painter or killer.

REproductiVe wOrkersand Lovers indUsTrIalunion

CHUS

LIFE

The

Chus

Mar

tínez

mon

iker

has

the

adva

ntag

e of

bein

g one

that

migh

t bel

ong t

o ei

ther

a Eu

rope

an

or a

n Af

rican

sinc

e Ch

us a

s a fi

rst n

ame

does

not

app

ear t

o be

lang

uage

ryos

pecif

ic. In

this

way i

t

is su

perio

r to

any p

revio

us m

ultip

le id

entit

y we

are

awar

e of

. Chu

s Mar

tínez

is a

name

that

refe

rs

to an

indi

vidua

l hum

an b

eing

who

can

be an

yone

. The

nam

e is

fixed

, the

peop

le u

sing i

t are

n’t. T

he

name

Chus

Mar

tínez

can

be st

rate

gical

ly ad

opte

d fo

r a se

ries o

f acti

ons,

inte

rvent

ions

, exh

ibiti

ons,

texts

, etc.

You

can

use

the

name

Chu

s Mar

tínez

whe

n in

volve

d in

mak

ing a

rt, m

akin

g mus

ic, o

r jus

t

maki

ng tr

oubl

e as

an

activ

ist. T

he p

urpo

se o

f man

y di

ffere

nt p

eopl

e us

ing

the

same

nam

e is

to

creat

e a

situa

tion

for w

hich

no

one

in p

artic

ular

is re

spon

sible

and

to p

racti

cally

exa

mine

wes

tern

philo

soph

ical n

otio

ns o

f ide

ntity

, ind

ividu

ality

, orig

inal

ity, v

alue

and

trut

h. An

yone

can

bec

ome

Chus

Mar

tínez

sim

ply

by a

dopt

ing

the

name

. Whe

n on

e be

come

sCh

us M

artín

ez o

ne’s

prev

ious

exist

ence

cons

ists o

f the

acts

oth

er p

eopl

e ha

ve u

nder

take

n us

ing

the

name

. Whe

n on

e be

come

s

Chus

Mar

tínez

one

has

no

fami

ly, n

o pa

rent

s, no

birt

h. Ch

us M

artín

ez w

as n

ot b

orn,

s/he

was

mate

rialis

ed f

rom

socia

l fo

rces,

cons

tructe

d as

a m

eans

of

ente

ring

the

shift

ing

terra

in t

hat

circu

mscri

bes t

he ‘in

divid

ual’ a

nd so

ciety.

Chu

s Mar

tínez

is a

tran

snat

iona

l col

lecti

ve p

hant

om.