Kassel’s dOCUMENTA Exhibition: Get your modern art fix through Sept. 16

Hilary BownAugust 16, 2012

The main hall of the dOCUMENTA exhibition. Photo: Yellow Book

Once every five years, the greats of the modern art world are invited to participate in dOCUMENTA, an international exhibition lasting 100 days in the German city of Kassel. The city lives and breathes the art, exploiting every nook, cranny, old warehouse, public park, train station, and museum to present over 100 works of sculpture, painting, photography, film, text, and audio, as well as performance- and installation-based pieces, to an audience of hundreds of thousands of art enthusiasts.

dOCUMENTA(13) is now well underway, set to wrap up its run on September 16th. If you’ll be in Germany within the next month and consider yourself a fan of modern art, you owe it to yourself to make it to Kassel for at least a day to see this year’s display.

Discounted train tickets to Kassel

Deutsche Bahn offers a special combination ticket (“Kultur-Ticket-Spezial”) for one-day cultural events: 39€ round-trip fare plus the entrance ticket price to dOCUMENTA, when purchased at a DB ticket office or travel agency. This fare is valid from any city within 300 km of Kassel, which, given its central location, includes nearly every major city in Germany, with the exception of Berlin and Munich.

This price offers huge savings over normal or last-minute round-trip fares, but do note that you must complete all your travel and museum-going on the same day.

This “Kultur-Ticket-Spezial” is available for many different exhibitions and events across Germany – check what’s showing at any given time on the DB website (German only).

Not to miss…

Some of my personal highlights from the show include:

Llyn Foulkes’ “The Machine”
William Kentridge’s “The Refusal of Time”
Theaster Gates’ “12 Ballads for the Huguenot House”
Old and new collide in the show’s centerpiece, the Fridericianum

General information: One-day entrance: 20€ (14€ students), Two-day entrance: 35€ (25€ students), runs daily 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

About the author

An academic by training, a writer by day, and a Cheapo by heritage, Hilary Bown's meagre means and insatiable travel appetite have helped her sharpen her "no-budget travel" skills across the European continent over the past decade. At home in Berlin or on an adventure abroad, you'll find her in sandals, riding the bus, reading novels while walking, drinking the local wine, writing out postcards with a felt-tip pen, and browsing the shelves of the supermarket and hardware store. Find her unique blend of travel adventure and tested advice at Less Than a Shoestring.

Posted in: Germany