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In "100 Days - 100 Guests", thinkers and doers from all over the world will step into action together with filmmakers, writers and artists alongside philosophers, economists and architects. Each will present either a lecture, a discussion or an artistic offering. Here the focus will be on film, theatre, music and literature. One objective will be to reflect the multiplicity of contemporary cultures - including non-European cultures in particular - and to present them as fully, vividly and flexibly as possible.
documenta-press release, early 1997
The hall for the event series was conceived by Austrian artist Heimo Zobernig. He invited his fellow countryman Franz West (1947-2012) to design the chairs, who further developed one of his steel chairs from 1994 and had the upholstery covered with colourful African fabrics. Obviously, this design was motivated by the "non-Western" focus of the programme, although only a fifth of the "100 guests" from those parts of the world were invited. In view of Catherine David's explicitly expressed aversion to any kind of folklore in an art context, there were ironic comments on these chairs. Or would such a design only be folkloristic if it had been made by an African and not a recognized "Western" artist? By the way, one of the 300 chairs was auctioned off for 16,550 euros in 2019...
The Torture of Enlightenment ►
Sabine Vogel about "100 Days - 100 Guests" and documenta X
100 Days - 100 Guests ►
documenta X press information
Participants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as contributions which have something directly to do with these parts of the world:
Edward Saïd, Philosopher, USA. Opening night
Rem Koolhaas, architect, Netherlands
New Urbanism: Pearl River Delta (China), 1996
Raoul Peck, filmmaker, Haïti
Cabelo, Tunga, Lilian Zaremba. Künstler, Brazil
Crab Nebula Project, 1997. Live broadcast by Hessischen Rundfunks
Valentin Yves Mudimbe, writer, Zaire/USA
"Reprendre": Enunciations and Strategies in Contemporary African Arts
Okwui Enwezor, artistic director Johannesburg-Biennale 1997, Nigeria/USA
Biennials Reconsidered: The 2nd Johannesburg Biennale
Fethi Benslama, psychoanalyst, Tunisia/France
The Identity Crisis in Islam
Suely Rolnik, psychoanalyst, Brazil
Addicts of Identity: Subjectivity in Times of Globalization
Suely Rolnik, psychoanalyst, Brazil
The Hybrid of Lygia Clark
Abderrahmane Sissako, filmmaker, Mauritania/Mali/France.
Discussion with him
Ackbar Abbas, culture critic, Hong Kong/China
Hong Kong: Urban Space and Disappearance
Etienne Balibar, philosopher, France
Is There Such a Thing as a "World Culture"?
Ariella Azoulay, art critic, Israel
Stories of hands: Becoming "Neturalized" in Jerusalem. Speaks about the artists Aya & Gal Middle East.
Carlos Basualdo, art critic, Argentina/USA
Models of Identity: The works of Dan Graham and Hélio Oiticica
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, culture critic, India/USA
Culture and / as "Culture"
Geeta Kapur, art historian, India.
Crackle in the Code: How to interrupt the clean course of critical transcendence.
See our interview with Geeta Kapur
Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Sophia Telles Silva, architect/archit. historian, Brazil
Contemporary forms of urbanism in Brazil, popular culture and sense of community spirit (architecture as a narrative art)
Yang Lian, Dichter, China/Great Britain
Concentric circles - to rediscover the Chinese cultural tradition by oneself
Paulo Herckenhoff, director Biennial of São Paulo, Brazil
Biennials recosidered: The 23rd São Paulo Biennial
Catherine David and Yang Lian, Dichter, China/Great Britain
Conversation about the video-works of the Chinese artist Wang Jianwei
Michael Oppitz, anthropologist, Germany/Switzerland
The Impact of globalization on oral traditions
Johan Grimonprez, artist, born in Trinidad, USA/Belgium
Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 1995-1997
Ery Camara, art critic, Senegal/Mexico
The museum: A Still Life?
Colette Braeckman, journalist, Belgium
The genocide in Ruanda, the evolution of the problems of the refugees and the analysis of their return
Masao Miyoshi, culture critic, Japan/USA
The sites of culture
Tierno Monénembo, writer, Guinea/France
The World of Exile.
Ea Sola, choreographer, Vietnam/France
Double Memories.
Sarat Maharaj, art historian, South Africa/Great Britain
A strife of tongues.
Matthew Ngui, artist, Singapore/Australia
Wole Soyinka, writer, Nigeria
Art and the ethnocentric vision
21 June - 28 September 1997
Kassel, Germany
Artistic Director: Catherine David
