David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

13 July 2012

dOCUMENTA 13 _ plus ça change

The image bLOGOS/HA HA has seen most often accompanying writing about documenta 13 is of a 1959 black and white photograph [performance en passant by Theatre of the Actors of Regard] made at documenta 2

Mousse 34. An issue about dOCUMENTA (13)

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, curator of the 2012 documenta 13, writes about this ____ in the current issue of Mouse Contemporary Art Magazine:

An Image / Un'immagine:

Notes Towards dOCUMENTA (13)

by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

    

This is an image that I found while hunting through the 
documenta archives. We see a woman on the left looking at a piece of 
sculpture, another sculpture on the same metal shelf, and a man on the 
right who may or may not be looking at the sculpture. The woman is 
barefoot. We do not know who she is, we do not know who he is. The scene
 reminds me of the film Far from Heaven, made in 2002. The photo was taken in 1959 by an unknown photographer. 



Many events occurred in 1959. World events and the space race 
intertwined in the media. On January 1, Fulgencio Batista fled Havana, 
Cuba, when the forces of Fidel Castro advanced. On January 3, Alaska was
 admitted as the 49th state of America. On January 4, rebel troops led 
by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos entered the city of Havana. On the 
same day, in Léopoldville, 42 people were killed during food fights 
between police and participants in a meeting of the Abako party.

On January 8...

    

click here to read full article