If, like me, you can barely contain your excitement for the opening of documenta 14 next year – first in Athens in April, followed by Kassel in June – then I recommend preparing yourself by reading the first three issues of South as a State of Mind – the Greek art and culture journal, which has been hosting documenta 14 activities since its Fall/Winter 2015 issue. These special issues are edited by Quinn Latimer, documenta 14’s editor-in-chief of publications, and documenta 14 artistic director Adam Szymczyk. The documenta 14 South as a State of Mind issues all help define and frame the concerns and aims of the exhibition to come (well, if you look at the documenta 14 website, it has, in many ways, already started!). Each of the three issues so far addresses the question of resistance, whether through forms and figures of displacement and dispossession (Issue #1), silence and masks (Issue #2) or language and hunger (Issue #3). For Minus Plato the most compelling aspect of these tasters for documenta 14 is how constant Classical antiquity (and not just Greece) is presented as both a point of reference and resistance. To celebrate how South as a State of Mind and documenta 14 both get us to learn from and out of Athens, here are some images of the three issues with some suggested reading to prepare you for the future issue #4.
