Focusing on a previously unexplored dimension of documenta history, the UTOPIEdocumenta exhibition takes a serious look at the “unfinished” as a genre of art in its own right.

The documenta has gained international acclaim not only for the works acquired on loan from all over the world, but most notably for art projects developed exclusively for each documenta exhibition. Some of these projects were never or only partially realized due to technical or organizational constraints. The exhibition presents the wide range of media in which plans for these projects materialized.

Conceptual drafts, sketches, models, and plans by such artists as Wolf Vostell (documenta 6) or George Trakas (documenta 8), by artists’ groups, including Archigram (documenta 5), Coop Himmelb(l)au (documenta 5), and Haus-Rucker-Co (documenta 6), and by documenta founder Arnold Bode document the utopian potential of the world art exhibition in Kassel.