Documenta 15 Closes With Strong Attendance Despite Controversy, Jasmine Liu, δημοσίευση στο Hyperallergic [29/9/2022]
Documenta 15 — the quinquennial exhibition of contemporary art hosted in Kassel, Germany, which closed this past Sunday, September 25 — released attendance figures that “exceeded organizers’ expectations,” according to a statement. In total, 738,000 people attended, representing a modest 17% decline from the previous edition’s visitor total of 891,500 in Kassel. (That edition was split between the cities of Athens and Kassel, with over 1.2 million visitors between the two locations in total.)
Over 15,000 season tickets were sold, suggesting that there was a cohort of dedicated exhibition-goers from the surrounding region. A total of 33,000 visitors were children who attended as part of school groups. About one-third of those visiting Documenta came from abroad, spanning 86 countries. Those between the ages of 25 and 40 were part of the most well-represented age demographic, making up 40% of visitors.
This year’s edition of Documenta was the first to record a fall in attendance in the exhibition’s history — though one that is not completely unexpected two years following the onset of a global pandemic. Documenta’s 2022 numbers compare favorably with dips in turnout that have been logged across the cultural sector before and after the start of the pandemic. In February of this year, the American Alliance of Museums calculated that across over 700 cultural institutions in the United States, attendance was on average only about 62% of what it had been prior. France, too, registered the same long-term drop in attendance, with museum attendance in 2021 also remaining only 62% of what it had been in 2019.
Η συνέχεια εδώ.