Die Kasseler Liste began as a cooperation between the international art exhibition documenta 14 and the German Department of the University of Kassel. The two organizations teamed up to support the preparation and implementation of the centrepiece of the 2016/17 exhibition, Martha Minujín’s (literally) monumental installation The Parthenon of Books. In the centre of Kassel, on the famous Friedrichsplatz, the Argentinian artist erected a replica of the Parthenon in Athens, covered entirely with formerly and currently banned books. Donations from across the world enabled this construction which quickly grew after the foundations were laid on June 10th, 2017. Ultimately, approximately 70.000 books covered the scaffolding, each of them conserved and attached in weatherproof sleeves. They were taken down little by little following the one hundredth day of documenta and distributed among the guests of the exhibition.
This was not Minujín‘s first temple of books. Already in 1983, after the end of dictatorial rule in Argentina, she had produced a similar but smaller monument to democracy and freedom of speech. The 2017 Parthenon in Kassel, in turn, was built to scale, modelled after the eponymous temple on the Acropolis, and news outlets reported on the “largest art work in the world.” This new installation was no longer a reaction to a specific government or political context, but a comment on the restriction of free speech that can occur anyplace at anytime through the banning of books. In a striking manner, The Parthenon of Books visualized the global scale of censorship.
The Team
Our academic support for the Parthenon of Books consisted foremost in the compilation of lists documenting the banning and censorships of books. These lists then served as a point of reference for individuals and organizations willing to donate to the project. The resulting long list provided the foundation for Die Kasseler Liste, a project that continues to grow since 2019.
The other contribution of our academic team to the Parthenon was very much hands-on: We manually processed the book donations that were sent in to become part of the “Parthenon of Books,” academically reviewing each submission and preparing it for inclusion in the installation.
These tasks were completed in the years 2016/17 by students under direction of Prof. Dr. Nikola Roßbach (University of Kassel) and Guest Professor Dr. Florian Gassner (University of British Columbia). The student staff in Kassel included Sarah Anders, Jessica Bauer, Tamara Bodden, Clara Coldewey, Andrea Glowig, Tim Herrmann, Pauline Hosse-Hartmann, Ann-Kristin Kemna, Katharina Kirchberg, Isabel Kumpe, Philippe Lorenz, Nico Mader, Vanessa Nicole Müller, Sophia Neitzel, Ole-Johannes Neumann, Josefine Rösner, Andreas Truß, Melina Werner und Lisa Wohlgemuth.
