Documenta11: Art and Anti-Hegemonic Politics in the Globalized World

Publication Date

4-2025

Presentation Length

15 minutes

College

Watkins College of Art

Department

Art, Department of

Student Level

Undergraduate

SPARK Category

Scholarship

Faculty Advisor

Judy Bullington

WELL Core Type

Cultural Wellness

Metadata/Fulltext

Metadata ONLY

SPARK Session

Art History

Presentation Type

Talk/Oral

Summary

The 2002 exhibition Documenta11, organized by Okwui Enwezor, through its decentering of the West by use of its five Platforms, worked to call into question both supposed Western hegemony as well as bring about new ways of understanding the postcolonial world. The thematic decentering and spatial deterritorialization of the exhibition, while still presenting crucial and significant works of art, proved that an exhibition could employ critical theories and ideas without comprising the historic integrity of Documenta. The entanglements of the postcolonial world were illuminated by Enwezor’s Platforms in discursive and heterogenous ways, countering the seemingly unstoppable homogenizing forces of globalization. By decentering what Western colonial forces had pushed to the center, Documenta11 expanded the current discourse on global issues and successfully presented a truly global exhibition of art. Through a radical temporal and spatial expansion of the exhibition format, Documenta11 delegitimized the then-accepted logic and model of many Western exhibitions. Enwezor subverted all expectations of what Documenta was through the presentation of alternative narratives that demonstrated the radical possibilities of art and exhibitions. This was a shift that continues to be of critical significance, particularly if art is to serve any role in resisting globalization and colonization in the contemporary period.

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