| agent |
Documenta (German exhibition organization, founded 1955); Georges Adéagbo (Beninese
installation artist, born 1945)
|
| culturalContext |
Beninese |
| date |
2002 (creation); 8 June-15 September, 2002 (exhibition) |
| description |
One of the central issues Georges Adéagbo addresses in this composition, is to what
extent an effort was made over centuries of geographic expansion to understand, analyze
and integrate the information brought back 'home' by explorers and whether the lack
of giving careful observation priority over hasty action might not be one of the causes
for the disparity of cultural and economic evolution in the world. Since summer 2001
Adéagbo exclusively researched for and prepared his Documenta 11 contribution. Several
visits to Kassel allowed him to acquire books and plow through photos and files at
the Documenta archive, finally to bring a choice of images and texts back to Benin
to be transformed by an local artisan into large scale illustrations. Adéagbo explored
and harvested objects at flea-markets in New York, Chicago, Kyoto, Hamburg and Kassel
and brought items from Africa. From the beach near his atelier, Adéagbo had a cracked
dug-out canoe and a 19th century anchor transported to Kassel, that form, together
with the four totem poles carved by Cotonou craftsman, the central area of the work,
an island surrounded by an ocean of narration.
Jointadventures [installation artist website]; http://www.jointadventures.org/ (accessed
7/17/2014) [description source] |
| inscription |
|
| location |
Documenta (Kassel, Hesse, Germany) [exhibition]
installation venue; Halle Binding (disused Binding brewery building on the outskirts
of central Kassel) [location note] |
| material |
wood canoe and totem poles; painted illustrations; found objects; Xeroxed texts on
paper
|
| measurements |
|
| relation |
|
| rights |
|
| source |
Core 4 Sample Database (VCat) |
| stateEdition |
|
| stylePeriod |
Twenty-first century |
| subject |
business, commerce and trade; contemporary (1960 to present); Exploration & encounters;
World politics
|
| technique |
carving (processes); painting and painting techniques; photography |
| textref |
|
| title |
The explorer and the explorers facing the history of exploration - the world theatre [cited, true, en]
L'explorateur et les explorateurs devant l'histoire de l'exploration - le théâtre
du monde [cited, false, fr] |
| worktype |
visual works; installations (visual works) |
|
|
|
| image courtesy Jointadventures.org |
|
