Documenta Fifteen

Exclusively for members. Visit the Documenta Fifteen in Kassel with curators and the director of the Hdkv. For more information and to sign up: kuratorische.assistenz@hdkv.de.

Susana Rocha Teixeira will give a lecture on US self-optimization culture, the embodiment of the American dream, and masculinities. This will be followed by a panel discussion with artist Philipp Timischl about his approach to stardom.

Susana Rocha Teixeira is a postdoctoral research associate in the DFG Research Training Group “Authority and Trust” (GKAT). She completed her PhD in American Literature and Culture at Heidelberg University “summa cum laude” in 2019. Her thesis titled “The American Makeover Culture and Masculinities: Roots, Connections and Representations” explores (fictional) representations of hegemonic masculinity in cultural products that employ makeover aesthetics, tropes or narratives in order to analyze how males resorted to forms of makeover in order to forge and reassert their masculinity and thus by extension reaffirm conventional notions of masculinity and national identity, especially during times of ‘crisis.’

On Saturday, October 1, there will be an artist talk and DJ set at the Heidelberger Kunstverein with the outstanding Mexican photo artist Iñaki Bonillas, this year’s partner of Enjoy Jazz’s artist cooperation for the festival poster. The event will be hosted by the director of the Heidelberger Kunstverein Søren Grammel, who will introduce the event together with Enjoy Jazz festival director Rainer Kern. The conversation will be led by journalist, publicist and publisher Maxi Broecking, who has been curating the series for Enjoy Jazz since the cooperation with Norwegian artist Frida Orupabo in 2021. For Bonillas, who was born in Mexico City in 1981 and whose works have already been shown at the Saõ Paulo Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the art form of jazz is closely linked to his biography and his artistic practice. This year’s Enjoy Jazz festival poster, titled “Soundtrack For A Still,” depicts the artist’s father, who died at an early age and left the young Bonillas his extensive jazz record collection, which he continues to this day. On this evening, he will put on the recordings that shaped him and his work and give a deeper insight into his work. This event is for free. Admission 6:30 pm.