documenta CEO to step down amidst budget controversy
Annette Kulenkampff, CEO of the company behind documenta, has announced that she will resign on June 1 2018, a year before the end of her contract. Kulenkampff’s decision is most certainly a collateral result of the controversy that has engulfed the quinquennial event.
In a statement, the city of Kassel has said that the decision came as a mutual agreement between the parties. For her part, Annette Kulenkampff defended her management of the event, stating that the extra costs incurred by documenta were the result of “unforeseen expenses” including the cost of air-conditioning and extra security, which still do not explain a deficit of €5.4 million. Read more on The Art Newspaper.
Art Basel and Adidas reach settlement out of court
Last year, Adidas sold 1,000 limited edition pairs of their EQT shoes, branded with the logo of Art Basel — without the permission of the fair and its organizers, the MCH group. The latter sought damages and the destruction of the “offending” shoes, but the two parties reached an out-of-court settlement, the terms of which have not been made public.
As The Gray Market’s Tim Schneider notes, the risk was very much calculated by Adidas, which acknowledged not having Art Basel’s permission for the creation or sale of the shoes, adding that the company “regrets these actions and is pleased that the lawsuit filed by Art Basel has been settled amicably”. More via The Art Newspaper.
Marianne Boesky now represents Archivio Maria Lai
The late Italian artist, who passed away in 2013, will now be represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery, with spaces in New York and Aspen. Marianne Boesky will feature works by the artist at its Art Basel Miami Beach stand, as well as at a solo show at its Aspen space — the artist’s first in the US since 1956.
Working mainly with threads, fabric and ribbons, Lai is perhaps best known for her 1981 work Legarsi alla Montagna, for which she asked the citizens of Ulassai, Sardinia, to tie strips of blue fabric together, creating a single ribbon that was woven throughout the village and around a nearby hill. More via Artnews.
Maria Lai, Orme di Leggi. 2011.
