Title: Marta Minujín
Description: Documents the major installation that Marta Minujín created for documenta 14. Initially constructed in 1983 by Minujín from copies of books banned by the military dictatorship in her native Argentina, this new version is the largest work in documnta's history, a full-scale model of the Parthenon, that stands outside the main Documenta buildings on Friedrichsplatz, Kassel, Germany. According to the artist, the form of the Parthenon was chosen because it symbolizes "the aesthetic and political ideals of the first democracy of the world". Its meaning also extends to the place, because it is the Friedrichsplatz, where 200 books were burned in 1933 during the campaign led by Hitler university students called "Action against the anti-German spirit." This intervention is the second version of an installation entitled El Partenón de libros, set up in Argentina in 1983 after the fall of the civic-military dictatorship of the self-styled "Process of National Reorganization". The installation was intended to celebrate the new intellectual and democratic freedom by presenting the same books that had been banned by the dictatorship. The books were redistributed to the the public and wiith this action, the artist seeks to express the ephemeral status of this work. The work of Minujín has the same dimensions as the Parthenon of Athens. The books that cover it were donated by people and publishers from different parts of the world. The artist was transported in an elevator to the top of the book temple, where she posted a copy of Mrs. Stone's Roman Spring, by the American writer Tennessee Williams.
Subjects: Exhibitions, Books in art, Prohibited books, Installations (Art)
People: Marta Minujin (1943-)