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an essential critical observation of art , and the catalogue remained with a collection of common political ideas and reflections often found in the European press . Another problem is the unbearable lightness with which the local situation and history are treated , and the disregard for information . For example , the curators attached great importance . so it seems , to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict , and devoted a large space to a "Palestinian" exhibit . Bearing in mind the five years of work and a budget of 11 million dollars , one could have expected of the Documenta curators , who purport to deal with the "world" - with the core of the global conflict - to tackle different levels of information and produce a dialectical exhibition that would not look like a Palestinian marketing endeavor . From one of the ( French speaking ) videos in the Palestinian show I learned that Menachem Begin supposedly said the following : "Had it not been for Dir Yasin , the State of Israel would not have been founded . " The curators did not bother to visit Ramallah , Lohamei Hagetaot , Bangladesh . They settled for an existing image , neither striving to challenge it nor seeking alternative aspects . The show features well-known artists whose families may have hailed from the "Third World , " but they themselves were brought up and made a career at the art centers in the West . Some of the exhibitions are simply shoddy , poorly transferred from a previous display in some western city , whether Rotterdam or London . In the case of others , a team was sent , as part of a prestigious production , to shoot a documentary of the "Third World . " The curatorial work with regard to both parameters - " art" and the "world" - is superficial , hurried and unreliable . Those departing from the main display area of the Documenta and crossing the green lawn , come across a fair of African goods on the left - more African than African can be , as if it were an early 20 century colonialist movie . Opposite , amidst the official buildings erected by the Documenta , to the left of the information desk and catalogues point of sale , one is in for a surprise in the spirit of this Documenta ' s eccentricities : one of the structures bears the sign "Museum of Contemporary African Art . " You can buy a sculpture and a mask there , and they even call it a "museum . " Is it postcolonial subversiveness , spiritual corruption , or simply the influence of Bush ' s global administration ? I opt for the latter . ? On Kawara , One Million Years - Past ( 998 . 031 BC to 1969 AD , 7970 One Million Years - Future ( 1999 AD to 1 . 001 . 998 AD ) , 1998 , twenty leatherbound books , each packed in individual black boxes ( photo : David Zwirner , New York )
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