Catherine David (2) (1954–)

Extremely influential 800-page volume (which goes far beyond any traditional catalog and fundamentally changes the way that contemporary art exhibitions make use of publications in years to come) documenting the intellectual and artistic research that went into documenta X, curated by Catherine David, Kunsthalle Fridericianum (and other venues), Kassel (21.06.–28.09.1997). In a highly interdisciplinary mode, the book (and the exhibition itself) charted an alternative history of post-1968 critical intellectual and artistic practices, and is in essence an anthology of texts and images of the development of western culture and critical theory since 1945. But the project also went well beyond the European sphere to include a consideration of Central and Eastern European artists as well as developments in Africa, the Middle East, and South America. This documenta also included the groundbreaking 100 Days, 100 Guests program, at which many of the most influential theorists and philosophers (i.e. Edward Said, Etienne Balibar, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak) were invited to speak. Given the inextricable link between theory, discourse, and contemporary art seen today, it is important to remember that this type of series was almost unprecedented at the time… (meer)

Tamss--which means contact, touch, contiguity, adjacency, tangency, and confrontation line(s)--is part of Catherine David's long-term project Contemporary Arab Representations. The project comprises seminars, performances, publications, and presentations of works by different authors--visual artists, architects, writers, and poets--with the aim of encouraging productions, interaction, and exchange between the different cultural centers of the Arab world and the rest of the world. It aims to tackle heterogeneous situations and contexts that may sometimes be antagonistic or conflicting, and thus to acquire more specific knowledge about what is currently going on in certain parts of the Arab world, to look at the complexity of aesthetics in relation to social and political situations, and to encourage people to think more deeply about the role played today by cultural practices in our own countries. Tamss 1 is dedicated to Beirut and Lebanon, and to the development and promotion of an experimental, critical contemporary Arab culture. All those taking part in the project aim to propose representations that can broach the reality of the city and the present conditions of its society, realizing that there are no theories or forms that can encapsulate the phenomenological complexity of contemporary Beirut and Lebanon. Tamss 2 is dedicated to Cairo.… (meer)