Documenta 11 Kassel 8. June - 15. September 2002
«L'explorateur et les explorateurs devant l'histoire de l'exploration, le théâtre du monde»..!
Okwui Enwezor invited Georges Adéagbo to produce a new work for this Documenta 11 in 2002. The title explained well the theme of symphonic composition – European expansion and extraction practice: The explorer and the explorers facing the history of exploration. The World-Theater. The research and production of the piece took Adéagbo almost a year. He travelled to northern Benin to acquire from the Somba tribe disused giant funeral drums, in the south from the fishermen a dug-out boat and an anchor weighing a ton. He commissioned 63 paintings from the sign painter Elie Adanhoumè, and four totem poles carved by Edouard Kinigbè. Images of September 11 terrorist attack on the twin towers were part of the composition. Kasper König, director of the Museum Ludwig, acquired the work and invited Adéagbo to re-install an expanded version with Cologne related elements in 2004, increasing the number of elements from 1500 to 1957. In 2016, when the Museum celebrated its 40th anniversary, Adéagbo was asked to choose chapters to intervene in the permanent collection to break its routine with parasitical clusters, such as in the Joseph Beuys room, or in collection of the German Expressionists, of whom many were inspired by African art. Collection Museum Ludwig Cologne.
"The explorer and the explorers facing the history of exploration, the world-theater"..!
The production of this complex work was documented in Benin and Kassel. "Adéagbo in Wonderland" is the title of the documentary filmed and edited by Stephan Köhler https://vimeo.com/327769688
Reviews: Kunstforum vol. 174, 2005 Seidel, Martin 2005: Georges Adéagbo…vor der Geschichte der Entdeckungen…
DC: Projektraum, Museum Ludwig, 30.10.2004 – 20.2.2005 https://www.kunstforum.de/artikel/georges-adeagbo/