The Ninth Documenta and its Director, Jan Hoet
The large international exhibition Documenta, which was held in Kassel (Germany) for the ninth time in 1992, was in many ways remarkable. The eighth exhibition in 1987 had proved problematic right from the outset because the Documenta Board had difficulty agreeing upon the appointment of an artistic director (it was eventually the German Manfred Schneckenburger), and it seems that the exhibition also left behind it a rather unsatisfactory impression. With a deficit of 910,000 dm, the question was finally raised as to whether this reputable enterprise still had a future.
However, contrary to all expectations, there was a ninth event in 1992, and Jan Hoet (1935-), the Flemish Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent, was appointed its artistic director. Jan Hoet was already known internationally on account of the much talked-about exhibitions he had organised in Ghent, and his Chambres d'Amis in particular. The Chambres d'Amis was an exhibition of contemporary art which invited Belgian and foreign artists to produce works of art in about thirty private homes. After his appointment to Documenta, this flamboyant and charismatic figure became known internationally as an art promoter who went to work in a distinctly idiosyncratic way. He organised the so-called ‘art marathons’ for the media in Ghent and Weimar, surprising the press and art enthusiasts by showing hundreds of slides of works of art which he had seen during his many exploratory trips all over the world and from which he was to draw up a shortlist. In actual fact, he disclosed nothing of his concept and that aroused considerable annoyance, especially in Germany where they were already suspicious of Hoet because he was not a German. Anyway, the form this particular Documenta would take remained a publicly open question right up until the day of the opening in June 1992. It soon became clear, however, that Jan Hoet had not gone to work in an impromptu fashion, as had been feared. His ideas created confusion, but behind them lay a sound concept, and while that concept may have been very subjective, it was exciting nonetheless. He broke new ground by selecting ten artists from his own country, and it proved a successful choice. In addition, he had looked for participants in countries belonging to the former Eastern Bloc and he had looked beyond Europe to places like Cuba, Brazil, Chile, Australia, Argentina, the Philippines, Senegal and Korea, countries from which we had seen
little in the way of contemporary art
