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Film still from »Animal Spirits«
Photo: Hito Steyerl / Randfilm
The Berlin artist Hito Steyerl has long been a world star, and when she withdrew from the highly controversial Documenta in July, it caused a corresponding stir at home and abroad.
She did not want to support the failure to deal with the anti-Semitic content shown, she said at the time and demanded the immediate dismantling of her works.
The exhibition thus lost one of its most popular entries.
Steyerl's total work of art shown in the Kassel Natural History Museum consisted, among other things, of the film "Animal Spirits", which seemed surreal not only because of the virtual wolves.
Interactive animations projected onto the wall – moving cave paintings, so to speak – were also part of this, as were real plants.
Ultimately, it was about the relationship to nature and the supposed laws of the market, and how crazy people play in both respects.
At least with her film »Animal Spirits«, the Berliner is now returning to the Hessian city, but not to the Documenta, but to the Film Shop Kassel.
Its operators describe it as an “off-cinema, place of culture and space of lost films”.
Location is a former video store, which is said to have been the first in the world.
The Randfilm association is responsible for the shop and cinema project.
This film club was also part of the Documenta, but canceled the collaboration in mid-July for the same reasons as Steyerl.
The press release said: »Der Randfilm eV rejects anti-Semitism.
We do not accept the actions of the documenta gGmbH and the curator collective in this context.«
So now this already sensational cooperation is taking place: tomorrow, Steyerl's ex-Documenta work "Animal Spirits" can be seen in a version adapted by the artist in the film shop's studio cinema.
A (single) DVD can be borrowed later, and if you don't have a player, you can rent it right away.
There will soon be a waiting list for the DVD, who can look at such spectacular art at home?
»Caricatures and above all hatred of Jews«
All this is a witty and at the same time very serious gesture of protest against the Documenta.
Steyerl will appear tomorrow herself. She told SPIEGEL in advance that she felt "overjoyed" and "honoured" that Randfilm was distributing her video work.
And: "I'd rather show my work in this Kassel association than at documenta 15."
Volker Beller, one of the contacts at Randfilm and festival director of the regular Randfilmfest, told SPIEGEL that he doesn't just think the current Documenta is problematic because of the Taring Padi banner, which is the focus of the discussion.
Another collective still regularly shows old, pro-Palestinian propaganda films in a Kassel cinema.
He looked at these immediately after the opening of the Documenta and recognized in them "caricatures and, above all, hatred of Jews."
As a viewer, you are not informed further, for example about the reasons for showing these films.
»This is archive material, but it is still highly explosive, and if you feel that you have to show it, you can only do so at an event where it can be explained and discussed.«
On the other hand, with her film, Steyerl erected a small monument to the Spanish domestic initiative.
And this collective promoting a new form of agriculture – participants in the Documenta – brought the German artist along as a kind of surprise guest, it was a real coup for the Spaniards, for Kassel.
The people from home then accepted Steyerl's withdrawal, but did not show solidarity with her.
Her film »Animal Spirits« has long stood for the many large and small cracks in this platform called Documenta.
And the small form – studio cinema, DVD – also acts as a statement for the confusing, opaque oversize of the exhibition.