William Kentridge - Darling of Documenta 13

There is a darling on every documenta. An artist whose artwork presented at the documenta and is particularly likely to be particularly liked an artist who the visitors find particularly great, one who the media report in advance and in the subsequent field, one who simply excites the general interest.

On Documenta 13, William Kentridge was probably this artist, who was able to combine the highest level of general attention, and the “favorite work of art” of all was his work “The Refusal of Time” .

How do you actually become a darling of documenta?

If you are now going to explore this path, a complicated demolition about economic influencing, art theoretical quarrels and networks between art and economy would probably follow here to outline the usual movements in the run -up to documenta.

Such a sketch would be interesting for people who combine financial interests with the artistry and benefit from a foresight for sales.

It is not so interesting for a normal art lover, most likely that such a consideration would even be more suitable to expose it to him.

The normal art lover does not have to deal with such investigations, rather he has freedom to simply look at art. Whether she can be found on the documenta or whether it can only be viewed somewhere else.

If this art lover particularly loves an artist, he will at most ask himself why this artist is never actually invited to documenta. Nobody knows from the outside, the art lover would have to ask the Documenta organizers.

William Kentridge, the darling of Documenta 13, will probably not be able to answer the question of how exactly he became a darling. It is certain that it cannot be associated with any relationship games in advance, he comes from far away and is decisively not one of the artists for whom the highest level of marketing can be a personal profit.

William Kentridge - a critical spirit

William Kentridge was born on April 28, 1955 in Johannesburg, the capital of South Africa. He comes from a committed family, his parents were part of the upper middle class and saw as a lawyer as a commitment to defend disadvantaged blacks in apartheid processes.

Kentridge lived in wealthy conditions, but he learned the whole human schizophrenia of the South African form of society through the life of his family between the world of white bourgeoisie and the world of excluded black citizens.

According to this, his upbringing initially had little to do with art, after completing the high school at the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg), he began studying politics and African studies from 1973 to 1976.

In the time of studies, however, Kentridge discovered his passion for creative work, theater and art, after graduating from politics/African studies, he therefore began studying art at the Johannesburg Art Foundation . In 1978 he graduated and then trained until 1982 at the “Ecole Internationale de Theater Jacques Lecoq” in Paris.

His activity in numerous arts, as an actor, designer and theater director, determined his résumé from now on, from the 1980s he was able to work as a director for the legendary Handspring Puppet Company from Cape Town.

For him, his art was always a valve for the attack by the traditional South African society, so he resorted to literary templates in his productions and transferred them to a surprising and terrifying South African context.

The company went on tours that made pieces like "Woyzeck on the Highveld" and "Ubu and the Truth Commission" world -famous in the 1990s.

Kentridge continued to transform strong poetic allegories The history and politics of South Africa have always been part of his art, the crimes of the apartheid regime are repeatedly discussed, in addition to dealing with personal responsibility and collective memory, especially in his short films.

In his later development, Kentridge increasingly simplifies, sometimes he only works with a drawing pencil and eraser, the stories are developed by erasing and re -drawing.

Between 1996 and 2008, articles by Kentridge were shown at Prospect.1 in New Orleans and he was represented twice at the Sidney Biennale and on the documenta. In 2003 he received the Goslarer Kaiserring and in 2008 the Oskar Kokoschka Prize , in 2005 Kentridge was the first professor to be appointed to the Max Beckmann Foundation in Frankfurt until 2007.

From 2004 to 2009, the artist stocked exhibitions in the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York , the Moderna Museet in Stockholm , the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Museum of Modern Art in New York with the exhibition "William Kentridge: 5 Themes"

The likeable crowd favorite Kentridge

In 2012 William Kentridge was on the documenta for the third time, and he didn't want to be the audience's darling, he was easy. His entire reserved and clever way makes him sympathetic, and a work of art like "The Refusal of Time", a work of art that concerns and touches us all, makes him particularly likeable.

How "The Refusal of Time" looks and works in detail is not revealed here - with such an unusual and surprising "piece of art", it would be really a shame to spoil the surprise.

However, it should not remain a secret that Kentridge has created a work with his “rejection of the time” in which the history of time measurement and the disapproval that time is measured and can be measured, forms the determining peak.

“Audiovisual Opera” was also titled “The Refusal of Time”, and in fact there is music and drama and a kind of stage design and costumes, and with all these ingredients in this video installation of the South African the most amazing things.

The artwork "The Refusal of Time" also has an impressive 28 minutes to develop its expression of the aversion against time calculation and against the end of the time, and in these 28 minutes you will see silent film scenes and joy dances, measuring devices of all kinds and paper and paper on large screens and also William Kentridge itself, which hikes through the times.

German art viewers are happy about the word goal closing panic, which only expresses fear of that life ends in the German language rather than dreams. Acoustically there is also a lot going on: choral and fanfare kicks can be heard and delicate voices that confuse the recipient with mysterious instructions such as “Hold Your Breath” or “Undo, unsay”, and of course the relentless ticking of the time, in many ways.

If you want, you can discover the numerous questions that the multimedia spectacle raises and try to answer it, for example the question of whether it brings anything to measure the time as precisely as possible, or whether this does not cost us important lifetime.

Since "The Refusal of Time" finally has to bend the realization that time is never to be stopped and the disorder in the world never becomes less, you can simply put all of these questions backwards when looking back and simply enjoy the media artwork (as long as you will return to a state of responsibility later).

Overall, Kentridge takes up a powerful time flow, with the questions about personal and social responsibility and with the visualization of the feeling that they can no longer have the time of their own time, whether these deficits express themselves in silent acceptance of social injustices or in the unadornness of an employer who always wants to have their employees available on their cell phones.

Lean along, against the time and against uninterrupted accessibility and against insensitive and irresponsible handling of people!

Lina cream

Passionate author with lively art interest

www.kunstplaza.de